


Curtain Call

by cynicaljapanophile



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Childhood Friends, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, How Do I Tag, Light Angst, Oblivious Reader, Reverse Harem, Slice of Life, Theatre, and the other is shared by, dating sim references, everyone has a crush on reader, itaru reader and matsukawa, lowkey poly - Freeform, mankai theater has two braincells and one of them belongs to sakyo, reader doesn't actually suck at acting, reader is a proud connoisseur of dating sims, reader is pretty and i don't care what anybody says, reader itaru and matsukawa all share one braincell
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:47:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23098807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynicaljapanophile/pseuds/cynicaljapanophile
Summary: [various! a3! x reader]"please, director, help us all bloom on that stage!"despite not being good at it [y/n] has always held a love for acting and theater and her love for it hasn't diminished over the years not even after the disappearance of her father.when she signed on as director of the mankai theater she was prepared but she didn't anticipate all the drama and romance that would soon unfold.
Relationships: Arisugawa Homare/Reader, Chigasaki Itaru/Reader, Citron (A3!)/Reader, Furuichi Sakyou/Reader, Fushimi Omi/Reader, Ikaruga Misumi/Reader, Matsukawa Isuke/Reader, Mikage Hisoka/Reader, Minagi Tsuzuru/Reader, Miyoshi Kazunari/Reader, Reader/Everyone, Reader/Various, Takato Tasuku/Reader, Tsukioka Tsumugi/Reader, Yukishiro Azuma/Reader
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	1. INTRODUCTION

**[Y/N] Tachibana**

  * 22 years 
  * Director of The Mankai Company
  * Curry Enthusiast



**Primary Love Interests**

Tsuzuru Minagi(18)

Itaru Chigasaki(23)

Citron(22)

Kazunari Miyoshi(19)

Omi Fushimi(20)

Sakyo Furuichi(30)

Tsumugi Tsukioka(24)

Tasuku Takato(24)

Hisoka Mikage(25)

Homare Arisugawa(27)

Azuma Yukishiro(??)

Isuke Matsukawa(28)


	2. PROLOGUE | WELCOME TO VELUDO WAY

[E/C] orbs widened in excitement as they shifted excitedly to look at everything in sight. 

“Wow! It’s been so long since I’ve been in Veludo Way, I can’t believe how different it looks!”

Suddenly a flyer flew in front of her with a strong gust of wind. She looked down at the flyer and read the words “God Troupe” before letting it go in surprise. 

“Right, I almost forgot!” the young woman exclaimed, digging into her purse to look for a small flyer that led her to come to Veludo Way. 

She looked at the crumpled flyer in her hands and stared at the crudely made flyer and read out the words on the small flyer. 

_“Romeo’s High School Paradise”_

_“Place: Mankai Theater”_

_“Tickets for 3000 yen only”_

“Mankai Theater…” she mumbled out as she stared down at the flyer. 

_“If I remember correctly Mankai Theater is at the end of Veludo Way…”_

-

The twenty-two-year-old woman walked down the sidewalk, peering into the windows of every shop she passed. She listened to the idle chatter that went on around her as she continued to look into the windows of numerous shops in awe and excitement. 

She looked up from her window shopping and saw a tall young man bent over on the ground with a pained expression on his face. She nervously looked around and after much hesitance walked up to the young man with a concerned look on her face. 

“Um, excuse me? Are you okay?” 

A brown-haired young man approached the two in concern before another joined and began to speak to the “sick” young man”. She watched the two speak and she started to piece things together as they began to talk more and more. It was a street act. She soon became enamored with the two and their acting as several passersby stopped to watch along with her. 

The street act between the two quickly ended as soon as it started. The two thanked the crowd for watching when the [h/c]-haired woman heard the voice of the brown-haired boy confused voice. 

“Acting? That was a play?” 

The young woman turned to look at him and began to explain what they had just witnessed. 

“It’s called a street act,” she explained, “It’s basically a roadside improv performance.” 

She let out a small chuckle as his expression changed from confusion to stunned amazement within seconds.

“Yup,” she nodded as she ecstatically beamed at the young man, “A lot of troupes do them for advertising and free tips.” 

The brunette grabbed his chin and looked down as he thought about the explanation, “Oh, so it’s kinda like a theatrical flash mob!” 

She nodded excitedly and continued to talk to him about the street act when the two of them were interrupted by the voice of one of the actors. 

“Hey, sorry if we spooked you two,” he apologized, “And thanks.”

After a few minutes after speaking to the two who she learned is named Haruto and Tasuku she left excited for the play she was about to catch the street act having gotten her pumped. 

* * *

After a few minutes of walking through Veludo Way she finally got her way to Mankai Theater. She stared at the building in surprise and disappoint. She took a double-take not believe that the building she was in front of was actually the famous Mankai Theater. It looked nothing like how it used to. The cheerful air that came from the theater was gone. 

The Mankai Theater was now a rundown building that looks like it was falling apart, it was completely empty with no noise coming from the formerly prestigious theater. 

"Maybe this was just a prank..." she said dejectedly as she glanced at the flyer in her hands. 

"No!" she yelled out as she shook her head side to side trying to get rid of her negative thoughts. 

She looked at the flyer and everything on it from the messy doodles to the bubble font that the title of play was in. She thought back to the day the flyer came in the mail and let out a long sigh as a solemn look came onto her face. 

She thought of Yukio Tachibana, the man who left both the Mankai Theater and her family eight years ago. The sender sent the letter to her family home with the intent that it would be delivered to her dad so he should know at least something about him. 

She worked up enough confidence to go inside but before she could even take a single step forward she heard a voice that stopped her from moving forward. 

"Hey, you've got some business with this theater?"

_"That must be Mr. Matsukawa!"_

She quickly turned around wishing to speak to the man who she assumed to be the sender of the flyer, Isuke Matsukawa. 

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Matsu-" 

"Am I who?" 

A small squeak escaped from the young woman's throat as she looked at the owner of the voice that was speaking her. 

_"Yakuza!"_

The young woman cowered under his gaze. She was easily scared and the sight of someone that looked like he belonged to the Yakuza left her fear-stricken. 

The mysterious blonde's eyes widened slightly for a few seconds before returning back to the sharp glare as he stared at the young woman's face. 

"Do I know you...?"

She glanced at the man in confusion, tilting her head to the side trying to make sense of his words. 

"No, it couldn't be..." he muttered out. 

A nervous and slightly scared look appeared on the young woman's face as she started to come up with excuses to try to get away from the intimidating male. 

"Me? Pfft! No way! It's not like I got any letter or anything telling me to come here. I'm just your friendly neighborhood Passerby A, just... passing by. Nothing here."

She whistled trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach as she tried to ignore the blonde's sharp gaze. 

"If you're not here for anything, then get lost if you know what's good for you."

"What? But why?" she asked confused by his words. 

"EEEK!" 

The young woman jumped in surprise at the sound of a scream coming from the theater. She looked over in shock as a backhoe came into view. 

_"It that a backhoe?!"_

_"What is going on here?!"_


	3. CHAPTER ONE | (TEMPORARILY) SAVING MANKAI THEATER

[E/C] orbs widened in excitement as they shifted excitedly to look at everything in sight. 

“Wow! It’s been so long since I’ve been in Veludo Way, I can’t believe how different it looks!”

Suddenly a flyer flew in front of her with a strong gust of wind. She looked down at the flyer and read the words “God Troupe” before letting it go in surprise. 

“Right, I almost forgot!” the young woman exclaimed, digging into her purse to look for a small flyer that led her to come to Veludo Way. 

She looked at the crumpled flyer in her hands and stared at the crudely made flyer and read out the words on the small flyer. 

_“Romeo’s High School Paradise”_

_“Place: Mankai Theater”_

_“Tickets for 3000 yen only”_

“Mankai Theater…” she mumbled out as she stared down at the flyer. 

_“If I remember correctly Mankai Theater is at the end of Veludo Way…”_

-

The twenty-two-year-old woman walked down the sidewalk, peering into the windows of every shop she passed. She listened to the idle chatter that went on around her as she continued to look into the windows of numerous shops in awe and excitement. 

She looked up from her window shopping and saw a tall young man bent over on the ground with a pained expression on his face. She nervously looked around and after much hesitance walked up to the young man with a concerned look on her face. 

“Um, excuse me? Are you okay?” 

A brown-haired young man approached the two in concern before another joined and began to speak to the “sick” young man”. She watched the two speak and she started to piece things together as they began to talk more and more. It was a street act. She soon became enamored with the two and their acting as several passersby stopped to watch along with her. 

The street act between the two quickly ended as soon as it started. The two thanked the crowd for watching when the [h/c]-haired woman heard the voice of the brown-haired boy confused voice. 

“Acting? That was a play?” 

The young woman turned to look at him and began to explain what they had just witnessed. 

“It’s called a street act,” she explained, “It’s basically a roadside improv performance.” 

She let out a small chuckle as his expression changed from confusion to stunned amazement within seconds.

“Yup,” she nodded as she ecstatically beamed at the young man, “A lot of troupes do them for advertising and free tips.” 

The brunette grabbed his chin and looked down as he thought about the explanation, “Oh, so it’s kinda like a theatrical flash mob!” 

She nodded excitedly and continued to talk to him about the street act when the two of them were interrupted by the voice of one of the actors. 

“Hey, sorry if we spooked you two,” he apologized, “And thanks.”

After a few minutes after speaking to the two who she learned is named Haruto and Tasuku she left excited for the play she was about to catch the street act having gotten her pumped. 

* * *

After a few minutes of walking through Veludo Way she finally got her way to Mankai Theater. She stared at the building in surprise and disappoint. She took a double-take not believe that the building she was in front of was actually the famous Mankai Theater. It looked nothing like how it used to. The cheerful air that came from the theater was gone. 

The Mankai Theater was now a rundown building that looks like it was falling apart, it was completely empty with no noise coming from the formerly prestigious theater. 

"Maybe this was just a prank..." she said dejectedly as she glanced at the flyer in her hands. 

"No!" she yelled out as she shook her head side to side trying to get rid of her negative thoughts. 

She looked at the flyer and everything on it from the messy doodles to the bubble font that the title of play was in. She thought back to the day the flyer came in the mail and let out a long sigh as a solemn look came onto her face. 

She thought of Yukio Tachibana, the man who left both the Mankai Theater and her family eight years ago. The sender sent the letter to her family home with the intent that it would be delivered to her dad so he should know at least something about him. 

She worked up enough confidence to go inside but before she could even take a single step forward she heard a voice that stopped her from moving forward. 

"Hey, you've got some business with this theater?"

_"That must be Mr. Matsukawa!"_

She quickly turned around wishing to speak to the man who she assumed to be the sender of the flyer, Isuke Matsukawa. 

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Matsu-" 

"Am I who?" 

A small squeak escaped from the young woman's throat as she looked at the owner of the voice that was speaking her. 

_"Yakuza!"_

The young woman cowered under his gaze. She was easily scared and the sight of someone that looked like he belonged to the Yakuza left her fear-stricken. 

The mysterious blonde's eyes widened slightly for a few seconds before returning back to the sharp glare as he stared at the young woman's face. 

"Do I know you...?"

She glanced at the man in confusion, tilting her head to the side trying to make sense of his words. 

"No, it couldn't be..." he muttered out. 

A nervous and slightly scared look appeared on the young woman's face as she started to come up with excuses to try to get away from the intimidating male. 

"Me? Pfft! No way! It's not like I got any letter or anything telling me to come here. I'm just your friendly neighborhood Passerby A, just... passing by. Nothing here."

She whistled trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach as she tried to ignore the blonde's sharp gaze. 

"If you're not here for anything, then get lost if you know what's good for you."

"What? But why?" she asked confused by his words. 

"EEEK!" 

The young woman jumped in surprise at the sound of a scream coming from the theater. She looked over in shock as a backhoe came into view. 

_"It that a backhoe?!"_

_"What is going on here?!"_


	4. CHAPTER TWO | NOT OUT OF THE CLEAR YET

_You were sitting down on the floor as you watched the members of the Mankai Theater practice. You were sitting down criss-cross with your eyes looking up wide in amazement as you rested your chin in your palms._

_You were captivated by the simple sight of the members rehearsing but you felt the feeling of eyes staring at the back of your head- at least you felt eyes looking in your direction. Standing up you walked over to the window that allowed you to look out of the dorm and stood on your tiptoes. Looking out you saw an older boy with blonde hair and glasses trying to peek into the dorm to catch a glimpse of the rehearsal session held by the Mankai Theater._

_'What is he doing?'_

_'That's it!'_

_An imaginary light bulb appeared over your head as you realized what he was doing in front of the dorm- at least what you thought he was there for._

_'He wants to join! Of course!'_

_You quickly ran out of the practice room leaving the members to practice without you as an audience causing some to watch you in amusement as you hurried out of the room._

_"[Y/N]?"_

_Your small, loud footsteps came to a halt at the call of your name. You turned around completely and looked down at the feet that stood in front of you before panning up to look at the rest of the person._

_"Hi, Dad!" you waved excitedly at your dad who looked down at you in confusion._

_"Is something going on?" he asked crouching down to your level._

_You nodded excitedly giving him a bright smile. You could hardly hold in your excitement, the idea of not only bringing in someone new to the theater but someone around your age excited you more than you thought it would._

_"I'm bringing someone in!"_

_"Oh, is this 'someone' a new friend?"_

_Yukio was excited in his own way, the entire time you've been in Veludo Way you've been spending all your time in the theater unable to talk to any of the children that lived nearby so the idea of you bringing someone to the theater was something he was more than happy about._

_"Nope!"_

_"Huh?"_

_What did you say?_

_"I'll go get him now!" you said, the eagerness in your voice causing Yukio to crack a small smile. You bounced in place no longer able to contain your excitement._

_"I'll be back dad!" you waved your dad goodbye before running out of the dorm to the older boy._

_You ran out of the dorm and ran up to the boy, taking a closer look at him. He had blonde hair and black glasses, he looked at the dorms, he was absolutely captivated._

_"Are you going in?" you asked, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt._

_He turned to face you and-_

"So, who do you have in mind about joining our troupe?" 

You stopped breathing at Matsukawa's words

_'Crap.'_

_'I forgot about that.'_

You stopped walking and took a deep breath before hesitantly turning your head to look at the two theater members. You looked into their eyes for a split second before shifting your glance to look at the concrete walkway in an attempt to avoid eye contact. 

"Huh?"

You winced at that came from the manager of the run-down theater, his response causing you to look up at him. 

"Huh? What about your insider connections and stuff?" Matsukawa asked in slight disbelief, trying his best not to stumble on his words. 

You let out a short sigh and turned your head down to look at the stone ground beneath you. You rubbed the back of your head in an attempt to calm your nerves, "I don't-," you let out another sigh, "I don't really have any."

"I kinda made it all up on the spot."

"What?!" 

"You were lying?!" 

You winced once again, you didn't think they would actually believe that you knew people to join the theater, you thought it was rather obvious that you didn't really know anybody in the industry considering your acting ability or lack of. 

You cleared your throat and looked down at the ground as you began to think about what to say, "Well, uh, it was more like acting," you said, though it sounded more like a question. 

"Yeah! It was acting, like a street act!" 

You cursed in your head as you replayed your embarrassing act in your head. 

_'That was terrible! Why would I say that!'_

Matsukawa groaned and covered his face with his palms in response to your disappointing reveal. 

"So you're telling me that our new members are..."

"Nonexistent, yeah." 

Matsukawa and the only troupe member slouched their shoulders in response to your blunt and oddly enthusiastic reply. 

"Was there really a need to be so blunt?" Matsukawa whispered to himself looking down at the ground. 

"Does that mean the troupe is going under after all?" 

"Not if we get straight to work and find people join right now," you said looking into the younger male's pink eyes. 

He looked a little more hopeful at your words but he returned to his slouching after Matsukawa shouted in response. 

"But there's no time!" 

You turned away from the younger teen and turned to Matsukawa, narrowing your eyes in annoyance at his pessimistic words. 

"There won't be if you keep wasting it standing here and being pessimistic!" you shouted at the older male. 

Of course, there was a low chance of you getting anyone to join a troupe with a bad reputation especially in just a few hours but being pessimistic and saying there would be no chance of getting no members definitely wasn't helping your chances of getting anyone to join. 

You glared at Matsukawa as he continued with his pessimistic words sounding like he didn't want to try to find new members. It got you annoyed considering the fact that he was literally begging on is knees for the theater to not be shut down but now he doesn't want to try. 

_'Maybe there's a reason why there's only one member.'_

_'His pessimistic attitude is starting to annoy me.'_

"Um," you turned your head and saw the sole member of Mankai Theater looking at you with a determined smile. 

"I don't know what I can do to help, but I'll do whatever you need!" you could've sworn that his smile was as bright as the sun. 

_'Is he an angel?'_

"I wouldn't want to lose my troupe right after I signed on, and it beats doing nothing at all!" 

_'You're such a good boy!"_

"There!" you exclaimed, running over to the sunshiney boy in excitement. 

You motioned over to him with a proud look on your face, "All you have to do be positive and keep your head up like, uh..."

"I'm sorry, what's your name?" you asked looking up at the younger with a curious look. 

"Sakuya Sakuma, ma'am!" 

"Okay, it's nice to meet you, Sakuya!" you couldn't help but smile at him. 

"It's a pleasure, ma'am!" 

_'He really is an angel!'_

You were definitely sure of it now. 

"You see that? Sakuya's the new kid, and he's doing his part. I suggest you get your act together and act more like the manager you are." you scolded. 

"Fine, _you didn't need to be so mean about it_ ," Matsukawa said rubbing the back of his neck. 

"When we fail, I guess it won't be for lack of trying."

"..."

"Y'know, I'm starting to see exactly why our yakuza friend was so hard on you," you said in annoyance. 

"How rude!" 

You ignored him and continued to silently judge him. 

"So, how do we find some new members?" Sakuya asked, turning to conversation back to how to recruit members for the theater. 

"Maybe we should pass out flyers?" Matsukawa suggested. 

"Flyers might've worked if we had more time, but considering the fact that we don't have much time I don't think it'll do much for us." 

"Oh! I know!" 

Sakuya and Matsukawa looked at you in surprise, their mouths in an 'o' shape. 

"How about a street act?" 

"A street act?" Sakuya asked with a small head tilt.

"Yeah, It could be good publicity for the troupe, and it'll get the attention of people interested in theater." you replied with a small smile.

"Oh, that's a great idea!" 

"But I've never done a street act, though. It's like improv, right?"

"Yup," you said with a curt nod. 

"So, do we just decide what to act on the spot?"

"I think we should pick a theme and stick to it for the most part. This is a street act to highlight the best parts of the troupe." 

"The best parts of the troupe..." Sakuya muttered under his breath.

"Matsukawa, are there any benefits to joining the troupe?" you asked turning to the bespectacled man. 

"Well, we've got a dorm, and we provide two square meals a day prepared by yours truly!" Matsukawa answered proudly.

"That's great! New actors don't make much right out the gate, so having room and board covered is a pretty huge plus," you said, maybe recruiting wouldn't be as hard as it seemed to be. 

"Well," you looked over at Sakuya as he looked to the side, avoiding eye contact with you. 

"Um, that **IS** a plus, but..."

"But?"

"Also, we have our very own theater, so we've always got someplace to rehearse!" Matsukawa said causing you to look away from Sakuya. 

"Mm-hm. So far, so good. Let's incorporate that into a street act," you said as you enthusiastically pumped your fist. 

"The cast is the three of us. Matsukawa, you're the manager. I'm the director. And Sakuya, you're an eager aspiring actor doing an audition." you said pointing at the two as you gave them their role. 

"This will be set in the middle of the audition. That sound good?"

"Yes, ma'am!" 

"Why am I not surprised that Yukio's daughter is no stranger to this stuff?" 

You looked at him surprised for a few seconds before looking to the side, "Well, I used to belong to a troupe, myself. I've done street acts, too." you said, trailing off near the end. 

"Oh, wow!" you cringed at his enthusiasm, it was sweet but considering your lack of talent when it comes to acting you really didn't know how to feel about his enthusiasm, "It's good to have someone with experience!" 

"We're lucky we found you!"

You let out a sigh, all this praise was starting to be a little too much for you to handle. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a.n.
> 
> sakuya is a good boy and i love matsukawa i swear, he is just so unreliable sometimes lol
> 
> also well get some romance soon it's just that i want to get things set up first but i tried my best to have something in the beginning, i think it was decent but i don't know.


	5. CHAPTER THREE | DEADLINE

The blue sky filled you up with a sense of determination... that was quickly destroyed by the words of commenting passerby's that listened to the sad excuse for acting, if you can call it acting, by Matsukawa and Sakuya. 

"Okay, then, let's hear some of the director's questions for our new entrants!" Matsukawa's voice took you out of your thoughts leaving you to stare at him with surprised wide eyes. 

Matsukawa looked at you with determined eyes gesturing towards you to say your lines. You stared back for a few seconds before your thoughts came back to you. 

"Huh?! Oh. Oh, yes, of course!" you winced at the oddly cheerful tone of your voice but continued to speak, after all, you started already you might as well just finish your line out, "Here I come with my questions! I mean, here I go!"

You let out a short sigh as you cringed at high pitched squeak that came from your mouth as you continued on with your words.

How did your voice get that high pitched? You weren't that nervous, were you?

You opened your mouth to power through it despite your burning embarrassment but stop at the incredulous comments made by judging passerby. 

"Did they lose a dare or something?" 

"Maybe that's the setting."

Your cheeks burned a deep red as their unintentionally teasing words reached your ears. You looked down at your feet completely unable to let words fall from your lips. 

"Something wrong?" 

You looked up a tinge of pink left on your cheeks, Sakuya's concerned voice bringing you out of your thoughts clouded by embarrassment. 

"I'm sorry," you looked down at your feet pointing them in. 

"I used to be trouble but I haven't been any use to you guys, I'm useless on stage with my hammy acting," you let out a sigh and turned your head to the side looking at passerby. 

"You're not hammy at all, ma'am!" you looked up and saw Sakuya looking at you with a bright smile. 

"If you want hammy, step aside!" you shifted your gaze from Sakuya to Matsukawa as the two began to cheer you up, "I'm King Ham of Ham Hill." 

"Aww, you guys," you were feeling better already by there comforting words.

"You're right, this is no time for whining," you slapped both of your cheeks and raised your first, "Let's give it all we've got!" 

Both Sakuya and Matsukawa gave a quick nod, their eyes filled with determination.

"Yes, ma'am!" 

"If we're gonna fail anyway, might as well fail like men!" 

Your eye twitched at Matsukawa's words. 

_'What is with him? I can't tell if he's being optimistic or pessimistic about this._

You let out a sigh before looking up at them with a smile, you were determined to succeed with finding people to join the theater and nothing could stop you. 

"All right, let's do this!" you pumped your fist along with Sakuya and Matsukawa attracting the attention of a mysterious onlooker that went unnoticed by you and the others. 

"We can do this!"

* * *

"Huff... Huff..."

You looked down at Sakuya as he rested his hands on his knees as he breathed heavily trying to catch his breath.

You looked away from the tired teen and shifted your gaze to your surroundings for anyone nearby that might be watching the mediocre street act. To your expected disappointment you were met by passerby paying none of you any mind as they went on with their day.

You let out a sigh after watching people pass by you before turning your head to look at the cracked ground beneath you. 

Matsukawa looked at you with a small frown and looked to the ground with a sigh before turning his attention back to you with a small smile.

"Okay, Miss Director. Next question, please."

You looked up from the cracked sidewalk having been taking out of your thoughts by the older man. You looked at him in surprise before recovering from your slight shock not noticing Matsukawa's feigned enthusiasm, "Y-Yes. Of course. Uhh."

_'This isn't working, no one's even watching, plus Sakuya's looking pretty tired. Maybe we should move on to someplace else. Yeah, that sounds like a good id-'_

You turned your head away from Sakuya and Matsukawa in the middle of your thoughts, the feeling of someone staring at the back of your head becoming more and more noticeable as time went on.

You glanced over your shoulder and saw a younger boy around Sakuya's age with dark hair standing a few feet away from you looking at you. 

_'Has he been there for a while?'_

Your eyes widened after a few seconds of looking back at the dark-haired teen. 

_'That's it! A potential member!'_

You turned completely to face the teen and approached him after giving Sakuya and Matsukawa a glance. 

"Excuse me, um, are you interested in theater?" you asked looking up at the teen.

"You've been watching us all this time, right?" you furrowed your eyebrows at the lack of response, tilting your head slightly to the side.

Caught off guard by your words he turned away from you, turning his gaze to the ground, a tinge of pink on his cheeks leaving you to look at him with a surprised expression on your face. 

_'Did I say something wrong?'_

"Wait, is that Masumi? Masumi Usui?"

The sound of Sakuya's voice took you out of your thoughts causing you to turn your head to see said teen walking towards you with Matsukawa following close behind. 

"You know him Sakuya?" you asked the pink-eyed teen, turning to look at him, shifting from the dark-haired boy to Sakuya in order to give him your full attention.

Sakuya gave you a curt nod and gave you a short explanation, gesturing to the younger teen."We've never talked, but he's a year below me at school." 

"Who're you?" Masumi asked, any trace of the timidness he had when 'talking' to you gone.

"Oh... Guess you wouldn't know who I am," Sakuya let out a sound of disappointment and rubbed the back of his head as he looked down at his feet.

"Um, Masumi, was it?" you turned your attention to the young male, the sound of his name falling from your lips catching his attention.

"If you're interested in acting, how would you like to give our troupe a try?" you asked, your voice shaking slightly but barely noticeable. 

Almost immediately after finishing your question Masumi answered your question with another, "Are you in the troupe?"

Caught off guard by his question you waved your hands in front of you as a nervous smile graced your face, "I'm, uh, more of a helper, really..."

Masumi looked down in disappointment at your answer until the silence between the three of you was interrupted by Matsukawa speaking up to say otherwise. 

"How can you say that, ma'am?! You're out chairwoman, our general director! Our visionary!"

"Well, yeah, maybe in the script, but..." 

Just was exactly is he doing?

_'Why is he throwing all these fancy titles onto me?!'_

"Now there's no need to be modest!" you took a deep gulp of air at the sound of Matsukawa's voice, specifically at how confident he sounded despite his initial pessimism. 

"You're the creme de la creme!"

_'Please Matsukawa, I'm begging you, quit it with the fancy titles, it's already difficult being a pretend director!'_

"If you're in, I'm in."

"Wait, you're what?!" you looked at Masumi, eyes wide in shock at his sudden statement. 

"Heck yeah! That's one down!" Matsukawa cheered though you couldn't help but feel annoyed at him. 

* * *

You turned your head to the side to see the sun going down, the sky painted a soft pink and orange, the color usually would've been something you thought of peaceful but considering the stakes going on at the moment the pink and orange painted sky made you feel stressed.

Noticing your sudden silence Matsukawa turned his head to look at the sight that you were giving your attention to and let out a small sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck. 

"I think our time's up."

"Wait, really?" Sakuya exclaimed in a worried voice as he and Masumi walked over to you and Matsukawa.

"Done already?"

_'Oh no, the troupe really will go under at this rate!'_

You felt your heart race. 

_'And we just got Masumi to sign on!'_

_'I have to find a few more people to sign on!'_

"...Dang it. Just can't find anywhere that meets my needs."

You looked over your shoulder and saw a familiar-looking brunette standing a few feet rubbing the back of his head in disappointment.

_'That's the guy who was looking for a troupe earlier today! I remember him mentioning dorms!'_

"Hey!" you said approaching him with a smile. 

"How'd you like to join a troupe with a dorm?"


	6. CHAPTER FOUR | TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT

The brunette teen looked over his shoulder at the sound of a familiar voice calling out to him. Over his shoulder, he saw a slightly shorter [h/c]-haired young woman waving to him as she walked up to him. 

Looking at you in surprise he turned his body completely to look at you as you stopped in front of him. Looking behind you he saw three others following close behind you. 

"I remember you..." he shook his head, shifting his attention back to you and he returned his eyes back to your smaller figure in front of him. 

"You were looking for a troupe earlier today, right? Did you find one?" you inquired, your anxious thoughts regarding his answer seeping into the tone of your voice. 

You let go of the breath that you were holding in as you finished your inquiry, you looked up at him with a curious but determined expression. 

"No, not yet," he let out a sigh and looked down at his feet and kicked away any nearby pebbles by his feet. 

He brushed back his hair and shifted his glance back to you, "What's this about a troupe with its own dorm?" 

He was curious about your earlier statement about a troupe with a dorm, he needed someplace to stay but he didn't know anything and a not so random stranger approaching you with living recommendations isn't something that sounds like the best thing to even think about. 

"Well-"

"It's called the Mankai Company, and we welcome you with open arms!" Matsukawa said stepping in front of you with newly founded enthusiasm coming out nowhere.

"That sounded extremely rehearsed and oddly enthusiastic," you said under your breath, your tone more tired than annoyed. 

You didn't understand how it was possible for you to be tired of Matsukawa and his behavior despite barely knowing him for a few hours. 

Matsukawa ignored the daggers you were glaring into him as he continued his ~~sales pitch~~ words to the taller brunette, "The Mankai Company provides dormitory housing and two meals a day!"

"Two meals a day?" the brunette teen replied in a soft but excited voice. 

You took a deep breath approached him with a smile on your face as you spoke in an overly cheerful voice that caused you to internally cringe in response. 

"That's right, good sit! What do you say?"

"Who's this guy?"

"A potential new troupe member," you said in response to Masumi in an excited tone. 

"But I'm right here." 

"We need more than you."

"Oh, so you'll take just anyone off the streets? That easy, huh?" Masumi pouted and looked down at his feet as he kicked away nearby rubbish. 

"...

You stared at Masumi with a blank stare as you processed his words. 

...

Did he have to say it that way? Was there no other way he could have phrased that? 

...

Like any other way. 

"You could have phrased that in a million other ways, but here we are." you sighed out. 

"What do you need anyone else for when you've got me?" 

You didn't know how to feel at how genuine he sounded with his words. 

"Maybe it wasn't the best decision to recruit you," you said under your breath before turning back to Matsukawa and the others. 

"Don't mind him. More importantly, would you be willing to consider signing on with us?" you asked as you, Matsukawa and Sakuya asked, eyes filled with determination. 

He looked at the ground for a few seconds before looking up at you, "I don't have any experience acting. Is that okay?"

"I hadn't really acted when I joined, too. You're not alone!" Sakuya looked up at the taller boy with big eyes. 

"I've been acting for eight years, and I still have no idea what I'm doing!" Matsukawa said in an unnecessarily cheerful voice. 

_'I don't think that's something to be proud of...'_

You let out a short sigh before turning your gaze back to the brunette. 

"I guess I should also mention that I'm an aspiring playwright, so I'd like to do some scriptwriting-"

Before he could finish his sentence he was interrupted by a more than excited Matsukawa, "Perfect, we could seriously use one!"

_'Is this seriously the same pessimist that I was talking to earlier today?'_

"Sound like you're a great fit. What do you say to being a playwright **and** actor?" 

You, Sakuya, and Matsukawa looked at him anticipation while Masumi looked down at the ground still pouting. 

"Okay, I'm in!"

 **"Yes!!"** You, Sakuya, and Matsukawa cheered in unison. 

"Name's Tsuzuru Minagi," he introduced himself with a curt nod and a small smile. 

"It's nice to meet you Tsuzu-"

You looked down and saw your shadow causing you to look over your shoulder and see the setting sun leading to you ending your sentence short. 

"Crap! The sun's setting!" 

At your words, the other four in your company looked up at the sky to the sky the pastel orange painted sky and the lowering sun. 

"We'd better get back to the theater! Quickly!"

You, Matsukawa, and Sakuya began running as soon as you finished speaking leaving Masumi and Tsuzuru behind in confusion.

"Wait, we're running?" Tsuzuru asked in absolute confusion at your words causing you and the others to stop short on your way back to the theater. 

"I'll explain why on the way there! Just run!" you said explaining everything(but no really) as fast as you could before picking up your feet again to the path to the theater. 

"Sounds like there's a lot more to this story," he turned his head to look at Masumi, "righ-!"

Tsuzuru quickly looked from the spot beside him that Masumi formerly stood in, to the front of him to see him running next to you and the others. 

He let out a sigh before following suit, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. 

* * *

Matsukawa took and let out deep and heavy breaths of air as he slowed down in his running before stopping completely to rest his hands on his knees. 

You looked to your side and stopped completely at the absence of Matsukawa before turning your head to look over your shoulder and looked down in annoyance. 

"Are you serious?" that was the first thing you could even think to say, you couldn't believe that he was already tired he only started running a few seconds ago. 

"You just started running like five seconds ago," you said disgruntled, "How is it that you're already tired?"

* * *

You pushed open the doors to the theater causing them to make a slam on a wall and echo throughout the rest of the theater catching a certain blonde's attention. 

Looking up, Furuichi was met by the sight of three familiar characters accompanied by two new faces, they all looked completely exhausted. 

Despite your exhaustion from running to the theater the moment you caught Furuichi's blonde hair from the corner of your eye you felt all of your energy come back to you in a second. 

You rushed down the stairs towards him, nearly tripping multiple times in the process. 

"We're... on time... right?!" Sakuya said between heavy breaths as he followed closely behind you down the stairs with Matsukawa following closely behind looking on the brink of fainting.

"...New ...new ... members..."

You looked back Matsukawa with a troubled look on your face, he looked like he was about to die despite the fact that he barely ran fifty feet and he walked half the way. 

"Inhale and exhale, manager," Tsuzuru said as he walked down the stairs, patting Matsukawa on the back once he got to the end of the stairs.

"Your new members as promised!" you exclaimed, gesturing to your new-found troupe members along with an excited Matsukawa and Sakuya. 

Furuichi let out a sigh and crossed his arms across his chest. 

"You were grasping at straws, but I guess you found a needle in the haystack after all."

"So you won't tear the place down?!" Matsukawa yelled in disbelief.

"Thank goodness," you sighed out as you grabbed your chest in relief. 

Everything seemed like it was going well... until you were taken out of your relieved thoughts by Furuichi tearing down the relief you felt from his initial words. 

"Don't relax just yet. All I said was that I'd leave for today if you could assemble a roster."

You should've expected just as much from him, you shouldn't even be surprised. 

He ignored the glare you directed towards him and looked at the others before continuing on, "As I explained before, two new members won't be enough to keep this troupe going."

You and Matsukawa let your disappointment known as you complained. 

"I knew there'd be more to the story, but I didn't think it'd be such a short one," Tsuzuru sighed out in disappointment as he shoved his hands in his pockets looking up at the ceiling. 

"And here I thought we'd be able to get a new Spring Troupe off the ground... So much for that... What a fiend, getting our hopes up just to dash 'em..." 

"A new Spring Troupe?" Furuichi looked at Matsukawa, his words surprising him. 

"Yeah! Now that we've got the troupe together, we can put on shows!" Matsukawa exclaimed with a gleam in his eyes. 

"When's the new Spring Troupe's debut show?" Furuichi asked, almost ordering Matsukawa for an answer. 

"Huh?" Matsukawa looked at Furuichi in shock, confidence having disappeared at Furuichi's sudden question.

"When do you think?" Matsukawa asked as he quickly turned to you, putting you on the spot. 

"You're asking me?!" you said in surprise, internally cursing at Matsukawa for putting you on the spot. 

You jumped back slightly in shock when Furuichi turned his attention to you causing you to feel cold all of a sudden. 

You took a gulp of air and answered with little confidence, "Well, if we're doing a debut show, we'd need a good six months to get down the basics and rehearse."

"Like hell, I'm waiting that long."

"What do you expect it to be done in a month-"

"You've got until next month."

"What?" you could believe what you were hearing, you could understand a single word falling out of Furuichi's mouth. 

"Train your asses off and put on a show by the end of next month."

You opened your mouth to speak only for no words to come out. You had no idea what to say, the idea of having a debut play with amateur actors was done in less than a month just seemed too much and had to be impossible. If he wanted the theater so badly couldn't he have simply told you that he was going to tear down the theater, what was with his need to give you an impossible task?

"You devil! You fiend! All this slow-burn tormenting, are you trying to market yourself as a sadist because you sure are doing a good job of it!" Matsukawa said in place of you. 

"Oh, spare me the nonsensical accusations. I'm making a special exception here and giving you one last chance."

Furuichi let out a disgruntled noise and turned to you ignoring Matsukawa's shocked face, "I've got three conditions. If you meet those, I'll consider giving you another payment extension."

You let out a sigh before reluctantly looking up at Furuichi, "Fine, give us your worst."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a.n.
> 
> reader and matsukawa at sakyo after he told them they have a month to do a debut show (www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F0JcVVFSvU) 
> 
> i love matsukawa so much and i don't know why i make fun of him so much
> 
> anyways matsukawa is best boy and thanks for reading and place comment if you want to : )


	7. CHAPTER FIVE | SETTLING IN

Walking side by side the new members of the Mankai Theater you let out a sigh as you thought back to the words exchanged by you and Furuichi.

Your plans were solely to get information on your dad and any information regarding his disappearance, whether you got information or not you had planned to leave Veludo Way. You weren't interested in staying in a town that you weren't particularly interested in or had any memories of. 

But unfortunately, it seems that Furuichi didn't seem to understand or more likely really didn't care as he made the condition that you had to be the general director or he wouldn't extend the time before he took action to change the theater. 

Maybe your mom was right, maybe it wasn't a good idea to look for your father and considering the events that have transpired in the few hours you've been in Veludo you don't doubt she was right. 

Oh well, there's no turning back now. Well unless you want to leave on bad turns with the few members of the theater troupe. 

"Over here!" interrupted by your thoughts you looked up and saw Matsukawa waving you and the others over to him, he was already in front of what you assumed to be the dorms that housed members of the Mankai Theater.

"This is our dorm."

"Wow." 

You looked around the room where you were standing in amazement, considering how run down the theater was you had low expectations for what the dorms would look like, you were pleasantly surprised.

After a small explanation of the layout of the dorms, it was time for everybody to sorted in their new rooms. It took a few minutes for everybody to get sorted out into their rooms and an awkward conversation between you and Masumi. 

You let out a sigh and turned away from Masumi having backed up a few inches to look at Sakuya, "Sakuya, you've already gotten the okay from your parents, right?"

You were expecting the teen to answer you with a yes but were shocked by him averting his eyes and mumbling his words. He didn't have approval from his family, did he?

"Well, um, not exactly..." he trailed off. 

"Wait, you haven't told them you're here?!"

You looked at the teen in shock, Matsukawa had to have known this, right?! Would Matsukawa really allow Sakuya to stay here without any approval from his parents? 

"No, ma'am..." Sakuya answered still averting his eyes Sakuya looked down at his feet as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. 

"I can't believe it!" Matsukawa exclaimed in shock.

"What do you mean you can't believe it Matsukawa!"

You looked at Matsukawa with a shocked glare that he decided to ignore instead deciding to focus his attention on the young boy., 

"You of all people should've known this already! You know you're one step away from getting arrested for abducting a minor, right?!" you yelled with a horrified expression on your face. 

"Eeh!?" Matsukawa exclaimed as if he didn't know that he was breaking the law for letting Sakuya stay without permission. 

"N-n-n-no, we can’t have that!" 

You let out an annoyed sigh, an exasperated expression displayed clearly on your face at Matsukawa you weren't sure how one person could cause you so much stress. You had barely known him for a few hours yet he seemed to have the ability to stress you out to the point that you felt like your hair was falling out. 

"Anyways," you turned away from the so-called adult and looked at Sakuya who was still avoiding eye contact, "They must be worried, so you need to get in touch. Sakuya-kun, give me their contact information."

Sakuya shifted his eyes towards you before once again averting them from you. He responded to you after a few moments of hesitation.

"Yes..."

* * *

"Hm," you rubbed your chin as you began to think of an idea of whole to solve the room debacle, "Then let’s decide by rock or paper!"

The three teens nodded yes in response to your suggestion, raising their hands in closed fists as they waited to begin.

"Everyone ready?" you said looking between the two teens, "Rock or paper, which will it be?"

"Paper."

"Rock?"

"Rock."

You clapped your hands together., 

"All right, let’s say Masumi-kun and Tsuzuru-kun are roommates for now," you said pointing at the said teen as you spoke their names.

"If you say so." 

"Gotcha."

"Then it's decided-"

"Food~. I’m hungry~. Oi, feed me something." 

You looked up at the voice that interrupted you in shock and confusion. You did not expect to be interrupted by a random bird flying above your head. 

"Ah! It’s already so late," Matsukawa looked out the nearby window seeing no sign of the sun, having not realized how much time has passed.

* * *

You looked over your shoulder and saw the empty kitchen behind you that was only illuminated by a single overhead light. You closed the door behind you and let out a long sigh before plopping down on the cold grass. 

You furrowed your eyebrows as you began to pull out pieces of grass from the ground, tearing it to even smaller pieces. You thought back to the video of the original Spring Troupe that you watched with the others. 

You weren't sure what to do, you wanted to try your best to help the others but you weren't sure you would be able to help them at least not much. You didn't plan to get involved with the Mankai Theater, well at least not nearly as much as you have. 

You were so distracted by your thoughts that you didn't notice the bespectacled man approaching closely behind you. 

"[Y/N]-"

"Ahh!" you body turned stiff as you jumped up in surprise at the feeling of someone's hands on your shoulders.

Looking back immediately you felt your body start to relax upon realizing it was only Matsukawa.

You let out a relieved sigh before you narrowed your [e/c] eyes and sent a piercing glare at the older male.

Matsukawa flinched at your deadly glare and shielded himself with his arms as he attempted to ignore the glare directed towards him.

"W-What's with that look?!"

"It's for sneaking up on me!" you scolded Matsukawa, the annoyance in your voice as clear as day.

With a pout and puffed up cheeks, you let out a long sigh and returned back to your spot on the prickly grass.

Matsukawa looked at you in confusion as he listened to your mumbling trying to make sense of the words that you mumbled from under your breath. 

"Is there something wrong?" he asked as he crouched down to your level. 

"I- It's nothing."

Matsukawa let out a sigh and sat down next to you causing you to turn your head to look at the older male who was now sitting next to you. 

You looked at Matsukawa up and down with judging eyes as you began to question his actions in your head. Your head started to raise as you began to look up. 

Your eyes went wide in surprise and shock. 

Matsukawa was looking at you with a small smile on his face. 

You looked away almost immediately and felt blood rush to your cheeks, a warm feeling spreading across your face. You looked back at him over your shoulder for a few seconds and saw him looking at you with a concerned expression on his face. You looked at him for a few seconds before he looked up and locked eyes with you once again before you quickly turned away. 

You let out an annoyed groan and rubbed the back of your neck and the pain caused by whipping your head away in a failed attempt to not be caught in the act of staring- though in hindsight it wasn't the smartest idea considering that he was already looking at you for a few seconds before you turned away. 

You held your eyes shut tightly and covered your face with your hands as you tried your best to ignore the feeling of Matsukawa's eyes on you. 

"Are you trying to be invisible...?" Matsukawa asked incredulously tilting his head to the side not quite sure what you were trying to do exactly. 

"Is it working?" you asked, your voice muffled by your hands. 

"Pfft!"

You looked up and saw Matsukawa laughing and wiping a tear from his eye. You narrowed your eyes and glared daggers at Matsukawa, you were starting to get annoyed by the older man. 

"What's so funny?!"

"Nothing-nothing!"

"Don't say-"

"So what was bothering you?" Matsukawa asked, his lips curled up in a small smile. 

"I- I don't think I can do this," you looked down at your feet, "It's a big responsibility and I don't think I'll be able to help as much as you think I can."

"It's not just you, it's everyone that's going to help, though I did make it seem as if I was pushing on the responsibility onto, didn't I?" Matsukawa sighed out and looked up at the sky above before turning his gaze back down.

"Thank you Matsukawa" you gave Matsukawa a small smile. 

"Shouldn't you two get to sleep." 

The both of you jumped up in surprise at the intrusion by Masumi and began stuttering and falling over your words in an attempt to come up with an explanation until running inside past the teen leaving him in a state of confusion regarding what he'd just witnessed when he just came down to get a glass of water. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a.n.
> 
> matsukawa is a chaotic mess but i headcanon that he can be hella smooth but never intentionally
> 
> sorry for taking forever to update i've just been really busy, i'll try to update this weekend since i don't have anything else to do 
> 
> so we finally got a kinda romantic scene
> 
> btw i'm adding matsukawa as a love interest because i love him and there are no fics with him and that makes me sad 
> 
> anyways thanks for reading and please comment on what you think if you want to : )


	8. CHAPTER SIX | THE SPRING TROUPE IS COMPLETE

You lazily rubbed your eyes and laid your head on the counter as you took a seat in the chair in front of you. Burying your head in your arms you ignored the sting coming from the ice-cold counter and let your eyelids fall as you fell asleep to the silence that fell from the room- before a perky voice broke the silence waking you up. 

Letting out a small groan you looked up and stared at the blur standing in front of you for a few seconds before turning your gaze down to your hands. Your vision became more clear as you rubbed your eyes and began to wake, the blur in front of you was much more clear than it was before revealing the person in front of you to be Sakuya. 

"Good morning, Director!"

"Mornin'" you rubbed your eyes, lazily waving at the younger teen. 

You looked around the room stopping your gaze at the door and saw Tsuzuru and Masumi enter the room. The two teens greeted you with lazy voices and greeted back by a curt nod. 

You let out a yawn and let your eyes explore the rest of the room at the three boys sat around the nearby table and began talking amongst themselves with Sakuya taking the lead in their conversation. 

You turned in your chair to look at the three teens, "Where's Matsukawa? Shouldn't he be up already?"

"He always eats breakfast at around 12, so I think he’s asleep," Sakuya explained. 

"Wouldn't that just be lunch by that point?"

"Well then," letting out a sigh you turned your gaze up to look up at the actors face to face and clapped your hands together to make a soft clap catching their attention, "Let us get started shall we!"

"Right!" Sakuya excitedly exclaimed.

To your surprise, Sakuya immediately stood up and raced towards the door. You watched with an amused smile at how fast he was going, it was as if he thought that he thought the practice room would disappear if he didn't hurry. 

"Time for the practice you two," you said as you turned to look at the teens, your words directed more at the college student who was resting his head in his arms rather than the more than awake high schooler who looking at you with a light blush decorating cheeks. 

Tsuzuru groaned into his arms.

"Come on Tsuzuru, it's time to wake up."

He looked up from his arms and blinked his eyes before dropping his head back into his arms to let out once last annoyed groan leaving you to laugh quietly in amusement. 

* * *

You clapped your hands together catching the attention of almost everyone in the room, besides Masumi who was basically asleep by this point. 

"Let's get started with a few stretches!" 

Masumi blinks. "Stretches?"

You gave a curt nod. 

Tsuzuru tilted his head. "You need to stretch for acting?"

"Yup," you give a small nod, answering almost immediately, "You have to make it through multiple performances so we have work on your stamina, we don't want any of you to strain anything or hurt yourselves after all."

"I see."

"And once we're done we'll move onto vocal exercises. All right spread out~"

"Yes."

"All right."

"...Zz."

Your eye twitched. "Wake up, Masumi-kun!"

* * *

"Ugh...." 

You groaned as you slammed your head into your hands. You let out a pained groan, the sound resonating through the room as you cursed at yourself under your breath. 

Matsukawa nervously laughed. 

"Um..."

You looked up almost immediately causing the older male to almost jump out of his seat. Matsukawa straightened up in his chair and pulled on his collar staring down at you curiously. 

"Why couldn't my dad have just volunteered at an animal shelter? Why did he have to work as a director?" you whined, your complaints muffled by your hands. 

You reluctantly sat up straight, turning your gaze up to Matsukawa as you let your palms rest on the side of your face. You let out an exaggerated sigh and closed your eyes. 

"I'm not sure if this is going to work."

Matsukawa's eyes widened. 

He stumbled over his words, racking his brain for words to say.

"I-I'm sure it's not that bad, after all, you just started a few days ago!"

"I know that," you sighed out, "I'm just not sure this going to work, I mean we only have three members," you said, counting them off your fingers as their profiles popped into your head. 

"We have to recruit more members for the Spring Troupe as soon as possible," you said, clenching your fists in an attempt to hype yourself up. 

You watched Matsukawa deflate in reaction to your words. 

"Maybe this is impossible..."

Your eye twitched. 

"What is with you and giving up so quickly?!"

There was a moment of silence between the two of you. 

You broke the silence by letting out an over-exaggerated sigh and scratching your hair head causing your hair to fall over your eyes. 

"Now we have to find two people desperate enough to join a failing theater troupe..." you said, trailing off near the end. 

You let out a short sigh as a deep silence filled the room leading Matsukawa to let out a sigh as he buried his face in his hands allowing his stressed groans to be muffled. 

Stretching a hand out you grabbed your coffee and took a long sip as you began to blink very slowly, your gaze focused on the table. 

And with that you shoot up almost immediately, slamming your hands down on the table in front of you. 

Matsukawa jumped out of his chair in response to your sudden action, his eyes wide in surprise, mouth ajar. The shock on Matsukawa's face is clear, he grips his chest out of sudden panic., 

"Wha-"

Before Matsukawa can even get a word out you clap your hands together and raise your voice once again causing Matsukawa to flinch back slightly at the volume of your voice. 

"No time to talk Matsukawa! It's time to get new troupe members!"

"Uhh..." Matsukawa raised a finger as if asking to say something only for you to run out of the room almost as soon as he turned to look at you. 

* * *

Sakuya blinked as he turned to look at you."We're going to recruit more people?"

He stopped in the middle of his stretching, dropping his hands to his sides, focusing his attention on you.

You gave a small nod. 

"Well the original Spring Troupe had five members, we need at least that many people or we won't be able to do much with our script."

You raised two fingers. "So we need two more."

Tsuzuru stood up and leaned on the wall, crossing his arms as he turned his gaze up to the ceiling. 

"True. I mean you really can't do much with two leads and one supporting character, can you?"

"Right? That's why I'm thinking that we need five members like the original Spring Troupe and in the future when we need more people we can ask people from the other troupes to star as guest members."

You nodded to yourself. 

"Right!" you pumped your fist in the air. 

Tsuzuru and Sakuya jump slightly in surprise at your sudden outburst before blinking and turning to look at each other with confused expressions. 

"Let's gather new troupe members through a street act like how we got Tsuzuru-kun and Masumi-kun!"

"Yes!"

Sakuya pumped his fist in the air almost immediately after you.

Tsuzuru lets out a yelp and flinched, looking on at you and Sakuya, completely confused. 

He reluctantly raised his fist.

"All rightly...?" Tsuzuru said sounding more confused than ever before as he looked at both you and Sakuya. 

"...Zz..." 

You blinked a few times before turning your head to the sleeping teen. Your eye twitched. 

"It's time to wake up Masumi-kun!" You said, snapping Masumi out of his sleep. 

You sigh heavily, dismissing your concerns, "Why did I expect this to be easy."

"Is a street act done by a bunch of beginner actors really enough to get people to want to join?" Tsuzuru asks, his voice snapping you out of your thoughts.

You let out a short sigh, your shoulders drooping slightly. 

"That's the problem," you say in a dejected voice. 

A lightbulb went off in your head. 

"That's it!" you say as you turn your head to the side to look at Tsuzuru, "Tsuzuru-kun, you agreed to join this troupe because we provided housing, right?"

He nods. "Yeah, I wanted to live on my own, and it costs too much to commute to Veludo Way from home."

You clapped your hands together as Tsuzuru confirmed your thoughts. You looked up at him with a small smile that snaked it's way to your lips without you noticing. 

"Then maybe we should look for people like Tsuzuru-kun!"

Said teen tilted his head by your phrasing, "When you say people like me, you mean..."

"People, who look homeless?"

Tsuzuru's shoulders dropped at how earnest Masumi seemed to be with his words. "Is that what I look like..."

"N-Not at all!" Sakuya said trying to reassure Tsuzuru. 

Sakuya sent Tsuzuru a reassuring smile from beside you. "Maybe we should look for people like Masumi-kun, too!"

Masumi sent Sakuya an offended look. "You only need one of me."

You dropped your shoulders and looked down with an awkward smile as you tried to ignore Masumi, "I think Masumi is one of a kind, plus I don't think it wouldn't be a good idea if we got another person like Masumi-kun."

You 

"So our target is homeless people... Well then, let’s make our street act friendly and appealing to homeless people."

"Can you please stop repeating homeless?"

* * *

"Thanks to Mankai Company, I now have a home!"

"Now we can eat a warm meal every day, bro!"

"We won't have to live in the doghouse anymore."

_'I'm not quite sure what to think about that.'_

You let out a sigh as a nervous smile snaked it's way to your lips as you watched the street act by the three teens unsure if they meant for it to be as comedic as it seemed to you. 

"What _is_ that?"

"They're such daikons* it's hilarious."

You shrank as you listened to the comments made by passersby on the... let's just say unique street act by rookie actors. You let out a sigh as you watched on as they continued. 

_'The reactions certainly aren't what I would want, but at least we're getting attention'_

"Daikon? I see, so this a Japanese daikon..."

"Hmn?" You looked away from the three teens to see a covered up stranger watching the street act.

You looked him up and down. 

_'A foreigner? He's really eyecatching..."_

"It's a fine white daikon."

_'Is he looking at my legs?!'_

You took a deep breath and looked up at him. "Excuse me but the only daikons here is our acting, okay!"

Tsuzuru blinks, looking disheartened. "Did you just insult us?"

"Wait, I didn't mean-"

"Oh, sorry. Excuse me, lady."

You looked at him incredulously.

_'This guy is too fishy to be a tourist. Maybe he's an actor with some other troupe? I wonder if he's playing a character.'_

You took a step forward. "What troupe do you belong to? We're busy doing a street act here, so I'd appreciate you not interrupting."

He beams at you. "Oh, cool Japan sure is a country where anything and everything goes. But if I’m going to watch a strip act, I’d rather it be girls."

Your face collapses in dismay. " **STREET** act, not strip!"

You let out a long sigh. "I see that you're a fine actor, but if you're going to do a street act, could you do it somewhere else?"

The strange passerby simply tilts his head in response to your implication of him being an actor. "I'm just a foreigner passing by. He shakes his head. "I am no actor."

You arch an eyebrow at him. 

"I wonder who that masked person is?"

"Maybe he's an actor?"

_'What should I do... he gathering a lot more attention compared to us.'_

You tilt your head and look up to the sky lost for words as you raked your brain for an idea as to what to do considering all of the lack of attention you were getting. 

"Something wrong?" Sakuya asked tilting his head to the side as he approached you with Tsuzuru and Masumi following closely behind. 

"Who is he?"

"Is he advertising for performance or something?"

"He says he's not an actor," you say with a small shake of your head. 

Tsuzuru turns to look at the mysterious stranger. "If you're not an actor then why are you dressed like that?"

"This is normal in my country. Everyone's showing off too much skin; you're all shameless."

You almost jump in excitement at his words. "You came from another country? Are you sightseeing?"

"I'm studying abroad," he answered. "I was interested in visiting the mecca of theater!"

You basically bounced in place as you continued to listen to him. The idea of recruiting him as a member of the Spring Troupe was too much for you. You could barely hold in your excitement. 

"You're interested in theater? Have you decided on a place to stay already?"

You knew you were jumping the gun but you couldn't help it, you don't have much time and are embarrassingly desperate. 

He shook his head.

"Not yet."

You felt the grin on your face stretch more and more by the second. 

_'He's perfect as a potential troupe member! And if I look closely, he has really good-looking features behind his mask; he'll definitely stand out on stage.'_

Without any hesitation you ask him the question that you've been dying to ask him for the past thirty seconds. 

"Then how would you like to consider joining the Mankai Company, then? Room and board are covered so you won't gave to worry about finding a place to stay at while you're in Japan," you gave a flourish. "Plus! you'll get to learn all about theater!"

Tsuzuru looked back and forth between you and the random stranger that you knew nothing about yet invited to live at the shared residence. "Um, with all due respect, are you completely nuts?"

"He's a... let's just say a different character compared to the three of you, and he makes an impact. You don't find someone with his type of stage presence every day."

Tsuzuru's shoulders drooped.

You were way too excited about this random stranger joining the troupe. 

"What about his lines?" Tsuzuru asked, still concerned about the idea of this stranger that you met only minutes ago joining the theater.

"I’ll be okay!" he replied in a cheery voice. 

"All I can see are problems here!" he retorted still in disbelief over the exchange. 

"It'll be okay, It'll be okay. I'll join Manzai Company!"

You let out a sigh, "You mean Mankai Company," you said, correcting him. 

"So you're going to flirt with foreigners now too? You'll hit on anything, huh?" Masumi judged looking rather dejected. 

Your eye twitched. "Don't say things like that!"

"I'm Citron. Let's get along," he said with a slight bow before looking back up at you. 

A wide smile spread across Sakuya's face. "Yes, please take care of me!" He excitedly bowed. 

"I don't know about this..." Tsuzuru sighed out as he kicked at the ground. 

You looked up and saw the blue sky now painted a orange and pink, you hadn't even realized how much time has passed as you and the others talked with Citron.

"It's getting dark out. I guess we should call it a day."

"I can keep going!" Sakuya said with a determined pout.

Tsuzuru turned his head up to the sky, rubbing the back of his head he looked around to see no one even stopping to even glance in the direction of all five of you. 

"Why continue if nobody's stopping as it is?"

Citron suddenly popped up behind Sakuya and wrapped his arms around him causing the younger boy to let out a surprised yelp. 

"They say: when in a hurry, spin around! I'm going to try spinning him!" 

Citron picked up the young boy before even hearing a response to his words. 

"P-Please stop, Citron-san! All of this spinning is making me all dizzy!"

You groaned and rubbed the bridge of your nose. "The saying goes, when in a hurry, take the long way round. And it means going around, not spinning around."

"Oh, my mistake!" Citron said, continuing to spin Sakuya around as if he weighed absolutely nothing at all. 

"Please stop spinning me while you talk!" Sakuya cried out before he cut himself off by covering his mouth. 

You turned to look at Tsuzuru and ignored Citron spinning Sakuya in his arms. 

"Tsuzuru-kun, how did you go about looking for a troupe that provided housing?"

"I checked the bulletin board in front of the station, there are advertisements for theater troupes and information for dorming and shared-housing on," he explained. 

At his explanation, you glanced behind you at said bulletin board and saw someone standing in front of the board. 

_'There's someone in front of the billboard right now.'_

Sakuya was finally able to get out of Citron's arms and began to walk toward the bulletin board, his vision dizzy and spinning. 

"Ugh, I'm so dizzy. I can barely walk straight..." in the dizzy state he was in he bumped into the man standing in front of the bulletin board. 

Said man let out a pained noise before turning around to Sakuya rapidly bowing as he apologized as quickly and as much as was humanly possible.

"I-I'm so so sorry! I was all dizzy...!"

You immediately ran up to the two of them, resting your hand on Sakuya's shoulder as you got him to stop bowing and stand up straight despite how dizzy he was. 

"I'm sorry, are you alright?" You apologized with a small bow. 

"Y-Yes," he replied, a nearly transparent pink hue painted on his cheeks. 

Citron, Tsuzuru, and Masumi followed closely behind you. 

"Sorry," Citron apologized, "Sakuya's mistake is my mistake."

He turned to Citron and flashed him a small smile, "Please don't worry about it."

You looked up at him. 

_'He was checking out the housing ads... I wonder....'_

You took a step forward. "Um, are you looking for a place around here to stay at?"

"Huh?" he said caught off guard, "Yes I am. Excuse me, but who are you?"

"Ah, excuse me, my name is [Y/N] Tachibana. I'm the general director of Mankai Company." you introduced yourself. 

"Our company is currently looking for new live-in troupe members at the moment, so I was wondering if you might be interested," you asked. 

"Live-in, huh..."

Tsuzuru turned to you almost immediately and gave you an incredulous look. "Just what is with you and recruiting anyone that you see?!"

You ignored Tsuzuru and gave a nod. "We have a dormitory for troupe members. If you attend practice every weeknight and two more times a week and take part in our performances, we'll provide free housing and two meals a day, breakfast and dinner!"

"So housing and food costs are free... is the room a single room?" 

You shook your head. "No, the rooms are mostly doubles, and the baths and toilets are communal."

He goes quiet for a few seconds. "Doubles, I see... I have a lot of luggage, so I think I need it to be a single."

"Is that you so..." you looked down slightly disappointed.

"I'm currently living alone in my room and there's one more Spring Troupe room left; what if he used that one?" Sakuya suggested. 

You tilted your head. "Sakuya-kun and Citron-kun, are you both okay with sharing a room?" 

Sakuya gave you a bright smile. "It's fine with me."

"I'm okay too. I've always admired cramped Japanese rooms."

Your small smile snaked it's way to your lips. "Okay, it looks like we can give you a room to yourself."

"Well then, please tell me more."

An excited smile spread across your face, "Of course! Right this way, I'll show you to the dorm immediately."

Tsuzuru looked at you with wide eyes, "You can't be serious!"

"What do you mean?" you asked giving an oblivious head tilt. 

"You showing him the dorm already and you don't even know his name!"

"Don't worry about it Tsuzuru," you said as you waved off his concerns. 

"What do you mean 'don't worry about it'?!" 

"First a foreigner, now a salaryman... I'm going to have to find a job too."

"Masumi-kun you have to focus on graduating high school first!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tsuzuru has only known reader for like two days and he already regrets meeting her
> 
> my boy itaru finally shows up even if he isn't introduced yet lol also he blushes because he thinks reader is cute. if anyone says they're not cute i will legit r i o t 
> 
> sorry for this update being like a month late, i've been sick lately and i'm still sick but i wanted to get this done. 
> 
> translation
> 
> *daikon is a white radish but it can be used to call someone a bad actor
> 
> if you like this please comment if you want to : )
> 
> btw if anyone wants a hint as to what's going to happen in the next chapter there's going to be some tsuzuru moments ; )


	9. CHAPTER SEVEN | PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Tsuzuru raced past the others to reach you, stopping you on your path towards the dorms.

“[Y-Y/N]... wait… a… second…” He panted out.

Tsuzuru stopped in front of you, resting his hands on his knees as he attempted to catch his breath.

He looked up at you squinting, still trying to catch his breath after catching up to you.

With a hand on your hip, you looked at him with an arched eyebrow and tilted your head to the side.

The look on your face was telling, asking him what exactly he was doing without any words.

After a few seconds of waiting for him to catch his breath, he finally stood up straight, looking at you after taking a deep breath.

“You walk surprisingly fast,” he sighed out.

“Is that all you wanted to say?”

“No!”

You took a step back at the sudden raising volume of his voice, looking at him with wide eyes.

“I, uh,” Tsuzuru coughed into his fist before turning his back for you.

He was talking to himself but you couldn’t hear a thing he was saying. He was speaking barely above a whisper.

You let out a sigh before opening your mouth to speak, “Was there something you wanted to say?”

Tsuzuru’s shoulders stiffened.

“Yes! I mean, yes, there is,” he turned around to look at your face to face, a pale pink hue painting his cheeks.

“I just wanted to ask are you sure it’s the best idea to recruit Itaru-san?”

You blinked.

“What do you mean?”

Tsuzuru scratched the back of his head. “It’s just that, he doesn’t,” he struggled for a few minutes searching for something to say before getting a full sentence out. “It’s kind of random, right?” 

You arched a brow and tilted your head to the side, motioning for him to continue.

“Random?”

Tsuzuru buried his face in his hands as he walked beside you, letting out a frustrated groan all the while.

“I mean, the only reason he’s joining’s for the housing, right?”

“Didn’t you agree to join for the free housing?” you asked as you turned your head up to look at him.

His cheeks turned a deep red in a matter of seconds as he processed your words before turning away to whisper something to himself. He turned back to you as he cleared his voice, his cheeks still stained with a light pink hue.

“Yes- I mean technically but I was already looking for a theatre troupe with free housing, Itaru-san doesn’t really seem to have any interest in theatre.”

You let out a sigh as ran your hand through your hair, moving any hair falling over your eyes. “That’s true but it’s not like we have any choice considering how little time we have until the Spring Troupe’s debut… But!”

You pumped your fist in the air and turned to Tsuzuru, eyes sparkling, “Who knows maybe he’s an amazing actor who’s talent has been hidden due to him falling to the drudgery of a salaryman!”

You looked up at him with a confident smile. “Who knows maybe he’ll be as good as someone like Takeru Satoh*!”

Tsuzuru’s shoulders slumped as he gave you a judging stare, looking you up and down.

He let out a deep sigh and ran his hand down his face, burying them in his pockets.

“Or he could have the skills of a generic dorama* actor.”

You slumped your shoulders and turned your head to the side, looking down at the ground to pout as you kicked the gravel in your path off to the side.

“It’s nice to see how positive you are Tsuzuru-kun,” you huffed out.

“Though…”

You glanced over your shoulder.

He followed your gaze and looked back at the three walking behind you only a few feet away. “Considering our selection of actors I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference.”

You looked over your shoulder and winced at the sight. With your eyebrow twitching, you slouched your shoulders and let out a reluctant sigh. 

“I’m sure we’ll be great by our debut show,” you said not sounding quite sure as you attempted to convince Tsuzuru, though it sounded more like you were trying to convince yourself.

Tsuzuru looked at you, confusion clear on his face as he looked you up and down not exactly believing a single word you were saying.

Noticing the silence you turned to look at him, locking eyes with him for a mere second before he ripped his eyes away.

You narrowed your wide eyes at him. “What is with that look?!”

Tsuzuru whistled to himself as he ignored you, speeding up his pace and trying to look as normal as possible. 

“Don’t walk away from me when I’m talking Tsuzuru!”

* * *

All eyes in the room zeroed in on you as you hit your metal pointer rod at the small whiteboard to your right. 

It was decorated with quick doodles of all of the members of the newly formed Spring Troupe with an inordinate amount of smiley faces, flowers, and exclamation marks.

“Now that Itaru-san and Citron-kun are officially members of the Spring Troupe I am happy to announce that Mankai Theatre finally has a complete Spring Troupe!” 

Sitting around the table Citron, Sakuya, and Matsukawa clapped while Masumi looked off into space, a blank expression on his face and Tsuzuru looked at you with judging eyes.

He was judging your very questionable decision to recruit a random salaryman and a foreigner who could barely speak a full sentence of Japanese without making at least one grammar or pronunciation mistake.

“I’ll be in your care,” Citron announced, standing up and giving a small bow before sitting back down.

You focused your eyes on Citron, now that his mask was off you could really start to take in how handsome he really was.

Feeling eyes on him Citron looked up and locked eyes with you for a split second before you tore away from his gaze. He tilted his head to the side. “Is something wrong?”

“Of course not!” You rapidly shook your head back and forth, your cheeks growing in colour as a dark pink hue dusted your cheeks.

Your hands were grabbed by larger hands intertwining their fingers with yours.

You looked up and saw Matsukawa giving you a big smile as he pulled your intertwined hands close to his chest. 

“I can’t believe you managed to gather all five members of the reborn Spring Troupe in only three days! You really are an amazing director!” 

He sniffed back a tear. 

You arched a brow at him. “A-Are, Are you crying?”

You could make out his flushed cheeks for a second before he turned around, letting go of your hands to quickly swipe his eyes.

“Of course not! I just got something in my eye.”

You let out a sigh as you and Matsukawa sat back down. You leaned back in your chair and groaned. "At least we're finally done with the recruitment, now all we have to do is get a script, practice, and get costumes, sell tickets, and come across a miracle."

You looked up from the table. "So not much left to do."

Tsuzuru gave you a blank stare. The sarcasm was simply dripping from your lips.

"Where's Itaru-san?" Matsukawa asked. 

"He went home to prepare for the move. He said he'd come to practice starting tomorrow," Sakuya answered. 

Standing up, you slammed your hands on the table and let out a reluctant sigh as you paced back and forth. "Now that we've got that out of the way I'd like to discuss the program for our performance next month."

You looked back at them. "After all, we only have a few weeks to prepare," you said, looking away from them. 

Sakuya raised his hand. "Is that all right to discuss without Itaru-san? Should we wait to do that when he's around?"

You shook your head.

"We have less than two months until the performance, so we need to prepare the script as soon as possible or we won't make it in time for the performance."

"Maybe we could reuse an old script? Would that be possible?" Matsukawa suggested. 

You pause in your strides and ponder upon that thought for a few seconds. "That doesn't sound like that bad of an idea."

"The first generation Spring Troupe's Romeo and Juliet was really amazing!" Sakuya exclaimed as he stood up. 

Masumi let out a soft sigh.

"But we'd probably get compared if we performed the same play," he pointed out.

You, Matsukawa, and Sakuya all deflated at the exact same moment, hanging your head low and drooping your shoulders in unison with the other two. You scratched the back of your head with a groan. "That might be a little rough to deal with..."

"Romeo and Juliet is good," Citron says, diverting the conversation from the original topic, " Everyone in my country cries when Romeo returns to space."

There's a moment of silence followed by a variety of different responses.

"Are we talking about the same story?" You ask with a tilt of your head.

"I know Romeo and Juliet is weird but I don't think it's that weird."

"Are you sure it's a good idea for him to be apart of the Spring Troupe?"

You let out a sigh. "I'm seriously questioning my decision now."

Tsuzuru looks over to you, hesitant to walk over to you as he glances down at the floor. "Um-"

You look over your shoulder at him. "Is there something wrong Tsuzuru?"

Looking up, he blinked before looking down and taking a deep breath. He looked up at you with a serious expression dressing his face. "If possible I'd like to write a new script..."

"Oh, right..." You turn around completely to face him. "You originally wanted to be a scriptwriter, after all." 

You looked up for a second. "I guess it makes sense that you'd want to write a script."

_I'm not sure that's the best idea, especially with these members. Even reading lines out loud is going to take a lot of time, especially with Citron so we need the script right now._

You looked up at Tsuzuru and couldn't help but let out a sigh.

_I understand how Tsuzuru-kun feels and I'd hate to disappoint him but I'm not sure it'd be the best idea..._

Sensing your conflicted feelings Matsukawa spoke up for you trying his best to come up with an excuse for you. 

"How about we use Minagi-kun's scripts starting the next performance?"

"Do we even know if there'll even be a next performance?" He retorted. 

Matsukawa looked away, a nervous expression finding it's way to his face. "W-Well..."

You looked at the two with a judging expression lost in thought. 

You blew at the air. "Tsuzuru-kun, how long would it hypothetically take you to write the script?"

He closed his eyes and buried his hands in his pockets. "I've written some short scripts, but nothing in the two-hour range before."

You grabbed your chin and tapped your lips as you thought to yourself. 

_I could just give him a deadline, but still that time could be better spent having him rehearse._

You looked at him from the corner of your eyes. 

_Maybe it's best for him to give up this time, we really don't have the time to wait too long for a brand new script._

"One week!"

"Huh?"

Glancing up you're surprised to see Tsuzuru standing in front of you. 

"Could you give me just a week? If I can't finish it by then, I'll drop it and I promise I won't miss a single rehearsal while I'm at it either!"

"Tsuzuru-kun..."

_He looks so determined. He really wants to do write this script._

You let out a sigh and look up with a small smile. 

"Okay, you don't have to attend rehearsals for one week but make sure you finish a complete and workable script by then."

"Eh..." 

Tsuzuru paused, surprised at your words before opening his mouth to speak again. "Can I really?"

"But..."

"But?"

"If you give me something halfway done, I'll be mad."

"You're surprisingly scary..."

"Of course," you say with a nod, "Of course, the troupe's depends on it. Saying "I wanted to write it" isn't enough— don't let this be just a selfish desire."

"...Yes."

"Good luck Tsuzuru-kun!" Sakuya said excitedly. 

"Now that we've got that in figured out... Tsuzuru?"

"Uh, yes?"

"Can you please let go of my hands? Your grip is getting really tight."

"Huh?"

Tsuzuru looked down hesitantly and was surprised to see his hands tightly wrapped around yours. He started to glow a deep crimson in a matter of seconds. 

"I'm sorry!"

"It's alright, really." You waved off his concerns not realizing that the main reason he was apologizing was due to the daggers being stared into his form by the younger teen standing next to you. 

"Do you have any ideas in mind?" Matsukawa asked, drawing Tsuzuru out of his nervous state.

"Ever since I watched the footage of the original Spring Troupe's performance, I've had the image of Romeo and Juliet stuck in my head, so that's what I've decided to go with."

Citron pumped his fist and nodded at Tsuzuru excitedly. "Sounds good! I'll be the captured alien then!"

Tsuzuru frowned. "I'm not sure what Romeo and Juliet you're talking about that definitely not the Romeo and Juliet I'm talking about."

He tilted his head in response. "Are you sure? Romeo and Juliet has always been popular in my country, there's even a popular ride where you fly to space."

Tsuzuru's eye twitched. "Now I'm definitely sure we're not talking about the same thing."

Furrowing your brows you let out a sigh as you watched the two boys go back in forth arguing about which version of Romeo and Juliet is true with everything going in one ear and out the other in Citron's ear. 

"So are you going to be Juliet?

You looked up with wide eyes surprised at the sudden appearance of Masumi who was standing in front of you, only a few feet away. 

With a hand on your chest, your palm resting above your heart you let out a breath you didn't know you were holding before looking back up at the younger teen. "Of course not."

You raised a finger. "For one, I'm the director, I'm not going to stand on a stage," raising a second finger you continued on, "And two, Mankai Theatre has always been an all-male troupe so it's not like I could perform even if I wanted to."

_'I'm also not interested in making myself look like a complete idiot in a place like Veludo Way.'_

"Traditionally, even female roles have been played by men," Matsukawa continued. 

"So should are we going to have someone take on the female rose?"

Matsukawa turned away at Matsukawa's words as his eye twitched. "Well, the original Spring Troupe had an onnagata* but..."

You looked away from him turning your gaze to what exactly he was staring at and dropped your shoulders almost immediately as you realized what he was talking about. 

Tsuzuru and Citron were still arguing about whether or not their Romeo and Juliet was the real Romeo and Juliet.

You sighed heavily.

"But with these members, it's going to come off as cheap and cheesy," you turned to Matsukawa pulling him down and lowering your voice. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"It can't be that bad, right?" He shrugged. 

"Well..."

You both turned to look back at the members. 

"Could you leave that to me, please?"

You let go of the brunette as the two of you looked up to see Tsuzuru looking at the two of you with a serious expression. You looked back at Matsukawa who did the same before looking back at Tsuzuru. 

A moment of silence passed.

"...Okay, I'll trust you, Tsuzuru-kun."

His eye lit up your words. 

"Really?" Tsuzuru asked, elated. 

You nodded at him and gave him a small smile before clapping twice getting the attention of everyone else in the room. 

"Then it's settled, we'll leave Tsuzuru a week to finish a script and if he doesn't have a complete script by then we'll just use the old one."

Tsuzuru gave a thankful nod to which you responded the same. 

Turning around you looked at Sakuya and Masumi with a stern expression. "Tomorrow is a weekday so Sakuya-kun and Masumi-kun have school, right? So make sure to get enough sleep and wake up early tomorrow."

With little to no hesitation grabbed your hands, looking at you with a faint blush painting his cheeks. "I want you to wake me up."

You ignored his words completely, gently taking your hands from his and turning to look at Sakuya, a blank expression dressing your face. "Please take care of him Sakuya-kun."

You looked calm on the outside as you showed little to no emotion but on the inside you were internally screaming at the interaction that just occurred between you and Masumi.

_'Please don't let me down Sakuya, I'm counting on you!'_

Sakuya playfully saluted you, answering you back, "Yes, Ma'am!"

A few minutes of passed of you going over the plans for the week before you and Matsukawa were left alone the practice room.

Tsuzuru was the first to leave, wanting to work on the script as soon as possible with Citron following him almost immediately, next was Sakuya and Masumi, with Sakuya needing to essentially pull Masumi out of the room. 

You let out a sigh and ran a hand through your hair, mussing it up in the process. "That certainly took a while."

"[Y/N], can we really leave the script to Minagi-kun? Do you think I should look for the original Spring Troupe's script just in case? Everyone else could start practicing with that script in the meantime."

You turned your gaze up at him and let out a soft sigh. "No, that's not necessary," you said shaking your head as your lips curled up into a small smile. "Let's just wait and trust Tsuzuru-kun, If he doesn't have a complete and good script by the end of the week then we'll use the original script."

You inhaled deeply. "I just hope this works out."

You waited for a response from the older male for a few seconds before turning your gaze up in order to find out the reason for the silence. 

Turning to look at the brunette you notice said brunette staring idly at you, his cheeks flushed slightly. 

"Matsukawa, is something wrong?"

He blinked as he began to process your words, the moment he realized what you'd said his face began to glow a deep crimson in a matter of seconds. 

"Are you okay?" 

You pressed a hand to his forehead as you furrowed your eyebrows in concern not realizing that you were the reason for his current state of embarrassment. 

He stuttered and tripped over his words as he tried his best to form a complete sentence only for everything that fell from his lips to come out as complete gibberish. 

Taking a deep breath the taller male stood up straight and took a deep breath and looked you in the eye, his brown eyes locking with your [e/c] ones— he then looked over your shoulder and ran past you to the door, almost tripping over himself as he ran away leaving you to look at the doorway in confusion.

* * *

"So is everyone is here?" You whispered under your breath as you pointed your fingers at the actors that occupied the room, saying their number as your finger landed on them. 

You clapped three times, causing all conversations to end as everyone turned to look at you. "So Itaru-san and Citron will start attending practices from today onwards and Tsuzuru-kun will be absent in order to write the script and finish it by the end of the week."

"Please take care of me," Citron said, bowing his head slightly before giving everyone a smile.

"I may cause some trouble since I don't have any acting experience whatsoever, but I look forward to working with you guys."

He gave a small smile.

Sakuya looked up at the older male. "Are you done getting ready to move in, Itaru-san?"

He tilted his head to the side. "Well, I've already brought over all the necessary things in my car, so I'll just have to wait for the movers to bring in the rest next week." He explained. 

You and Sakuya looked at him, eyes sparkling with intense excitement and awe.

"Ooh, you've got your own car? That's so cool!"

"If you ever need a ride, just let me know."

You could swear there were tears in your eyes and if there weren't it sure felt like there was.

You've only been in Veludo for a few days but it felt like it's been ages since you've been around a reliable adult especially since the only other adults you've been around has been Matsukawa, who can barely take care of himself, Tsuzuru, a college student who is just considered an adult, and Citron, a foreign student that makes you think twice every time you open your mouth.

"I can't believe you actually have a car! I hope you don't mind me asking you for a ride every now and then."

"Sure, that's why I offered."

If there weren't tears in your eyes before then there sure were now, you couldn't believe someone so reliable existed, though to be honest your expectations for a reliable adult weren't that high considering the competition that is Matsukawa. 

_'Wow... He's both handsome and reliable, I didn't even think that was possible.'_

You let out a sigh of relief before turning your attention to the rest of the actors in the room. 

Getting back to business you clapped your hands twice loud enough to get everyone's attention. "Now then, let's start, shall we?"

"Today we'll begin with the usual warming up routine by stretching and doing some vocal exercises."

You tapped a finger down. "Next, I'd like you all to do some simple pantomimes. You won't have any lines so you'll have to convey the situation to the audience solely through gestures. I'll tell one person what the topic is and everyone else will have to guess and figure out what situation is being acted out. Just think of it as a game."

"And the first one up is Sakuya-kun."

"Ready!" He beamed at you.

You couldn't help but smile back at him, his smile was way too contagious for you to not react to it at all. 

Sakuya walked over to you. 

Covering the side of your mouth you whispered the situation to Sakuya. "Sakuya-kun, your job is to act out "someone who is about to head out".

"Roger!" Sakuya excitedly exclaimed, nodding his head.

You looked down at the digital stopwatch in your hand.

"...And Go!"

Citron tilted his head to the side as he racked his brain for an idea as to what was being acted out in front of him. His eyes lit up as he came up with an idea for an answer. 

"I've got it! It's the traditional Japanese bon-odori dance*, is it not?"

You shook your head. "Wrong."

Itaru answered next. "Is it a robot?"

You brought two fingers up making an x. "Nope."

_'Though the way he's moving is making him look like one, though.'_

"Hmmn..."

Masumi narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "He broke his bones and now he can't move properly."

You brought you arms up to your chest crossing them over each other, making an x. "Definitely not."

With only a few seconds left on the clock, Sakuya stopped with a sigh, looking down at his feet in disappointment. 

Citron arched a brow. "I wonder what the answer is. 

Itaru rubbed his chin, leaning forward as he trained his eyes onto the younger teen. "Hmm..."

You let out a deep sigh and stopped the timer, raising a hand. "Okay, time's up. The correct answer was "someone who is about to head out."

"Well, I tried stuff like brushing my teeth and brushing my hair, but..."

"Really?" Citron questioned. "I couldn't tell at all."

Itaru frowned as he leaned back. "I think it was a little hard to tell.

"Ugh..." Sakuya groaned, disappointed as he made his way back to the others, sitting down in between Itaru and Citron. 

_'I guess Sakuya-kun is a bit clumsy?'_

"Okay, so next up is Masumi-kun."

"What should I do?" He asked. 

You looked up as you thought about a situation for him to portray. "Try expressing 'waiting for someone'."

"Got it," he said, giving you a curt nod.

Sakuya, looking confused, tilted his head to the side. "Is he looking for something?"

"You're close."

Citron leaned forward. "Are you waiting for something?"

"Ah, getting closer..."

Itaru snapped his fingers. "I got it. He's waiting for someone."

"Correct!" You cheered, clapping your hands. 

Masumi turned to you immediately and looked at you as if waiting for your approval. "Did I do a good job?"

You nodded.

"Yup Yup! You did a great job Masumi-kun."

You watched in awe as he made his way back to the others, sitting down next to Citron. 

_'Masumi-kun is even good at pantomiming, it must be amazing to be that talented.'_

You shook your head and looked back at the others. "Alright, Itaru-san, it's your turn."

"Don't be too hard on me."

Itaru and Citron's turns went down without a hitch. They were surprisingly good despite being beginners, you were sure they could do better but still. 

The only problems other than some stiffness here and there had to be with Itaru and how he seemed to be away, he didn't see as if he wanted to be at practice. 

"Okay, so the next topic is-"

"The practice is supposed to end at 9, right?"

You looked up from your clipboard and saw Itaru standing a few feet away from where he was standing a few minutes ago. "Ah, I'm sorry," you apologized as you looked down at your phone. "It's already 9, isn't it?"

Sakuya jumped in front of you, a determined expression decorating his face. "I can keep going on!"

"I'd also like to extend the service," Citron added with a smile as he walked over Sakuya. 

Your shoulders slumped and you furrowed your brows at his words. "Please don't say something like that Citron-kun, it's starting to sound like we running some shady business here."

"If I can be with you until dawn, I wouldn't mind."

You turned your head to look at Masumi. "Masumi, please remind me to have a good long talk with you about the importance of phrasing."

"Hmm, but you still have school to get to tomorrow morning, so don't push yourselves too hard. Besides, I still have work to get to tomorrow too so it'd be best to take things easy, you know?"

You let out a sigh. 

"Y-Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's wrap up and call it a night."

You turned to get your things but stopped when Sakuya started to speak. You looked over the shoulder and saw the young boy playing with the collar of his jacket, avoiding eye contact as he looked down at his feet. 

"Um, Excuse me, can I keep doing some coal exercises for a little while longer?"

You turned to face him. "I'll give you thirty more minutes. After that, head to bed, all right?"

"I'll join you," Citron added.

"I'll stay here too if you'll stay."

You cracked a smile. "I guess staying back won't hurt me."

"Then, I'll head back to my room. Thanks for today, good night."

You frowned slightly as you watched Itaru's back disappear. 

_'Itaru-san is pretty casual and quick to leave. Though I guess he wasn't really interested in taking part in the theatre in the first place, but still...'_

* * *

"Wow, that was close but still not close at all!"

Citron sighed at the words. 

"This language is extremely hard," he pouted out, furrowing his brows. 

_'Citron-kun's problem lies in his_ — _less than stellar Japanese. He is really motivated about everything though, but we really need him to improve his Japanese before the performance.'_

You deeply sighed at your thoughts.

_'I'm not sure how he's supposed to improve his Japanese as much as I want him to in only a few weeks.'_

"Ame—yoko—yaaay! Foo!"*

_'I'm definitely not sure how he's supposed to improve as much as I want him to.'_

After a few minutes of watching the two practice, you walked up to Citron. 

"Hey, Citron?"

"Yes?"

"You can speak basic Japanese, right?"

"Yes...?"

You screamed internally.

_'Why did he say that like he was asking a question?!'_

"I was just wondering because you tend to mix up words that sound similar."

Citron tilted his head, surprised by your words. "I do?"

You nodded. "You haven't said this but you make small mistakes like small mispronunciations like kawaii and kowaii*"

"Really? Wow, Japanese is really confusing."

He looked back at you. "That'd be like me calling you..."

You tilted your head to the side as Citron began speaking in a foreign language that you couldn't understand.

"What does that mean exactly?"

He beamed at you, tilting his head slightly to the side. He repeated what he said again, explaining what each word meant."The first one is an insult and it sounds familiar to the second one which is what you say when you want to call someone beautiful. It'd be embarrassing if I called you the first one when you match the second description a lot more."

You blink. You weren't expecting that.

He beamed at you.

He was showing absolutely no signs of shame at the words that fell from his mouth.

...

**You were not expecting him to say that.**

In only a matter of seconds your face when from it's usual tone to glowing a deep red. 

You ran over to the door hiding your face by lifting your shirt up to your face to hide your burning cheeks. 

"I'm going to sleep! Remember to go to sleep as soon as you're done! I'll see you tomorrow!" You yelped the last few words as your voice slowly got higher and higher until you could barely recognize it. 

_'This is going to be a lot more difficult than I thought it would be!'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't think Matsukawa had a crush on the director from the moment he saw her than I don't know what to say.
> 
> A.N.
> 
> Like seriously Matsukawa canonically had a dream where he had a thing for the director, I mean technically it was an April Fools' thing but still.
> 
> I'm really sorry for taking ninety years to update this, I've just had a lot of distractions lately.
> 
> But anyways... There were some nice Tsuzuru, Matsukawa, and Citron moments because I love my underappreciated boys.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> *A Japanese actor who is most well known for his roles as Ryotaro Nogami in the Kamen Rider Den-O franchise and Kenshin Himura in the live-action Rurouni Kenshin movies. 
> 
> Fun fact: I attempted to buy one of his photobooks when I was like 12 and then I tried once more, this time attempting to buy his 13-year anniversary photobook but the shipping was more like 20 dollars and I’m poor.
> 
> *A dorama is a Japanese television drama and while not all of them are terrible they have a reputation for being extremely cheesy and over the top with bad acting.
> 
> *An Onnagata is a male actor who plays female roles in Japanese Kabuki theatre.
> 
> *A Japanese festival dance.
> 
> *It's Citron's mispronunciation of a Japanese poem used to practice your AIUEOs.
> 
> *Kawaii and Kowaii sound similar but mean very different things with Kawaii meaning cute and Kowaii meaning scary.


	10. CHAPTER EIGHT | A COMPLETE SCRIPT

You let out a deep sigh as you made your way around town, bags of groceries filled to the brim in both of your hands as you slowly made your way back to the dorms. 

Despite nothing that has gone on throughout the entire week, no contact from Sakyo, or anything else that would've been a call for concern you couldn't help but worry. 

Tsuzuru's been stuck in his room the entire week, only coming out to eat and use the bathroom while Sakuya and Citron haven't quite improved in the area's you would've hoped with Sakuya still stumbling around quite a bit not yet being able to find his footing in any of the practices and Citron still making simple language mistakes that change the entire moon. 

It didn't help that despite being talented Masumi seemed to not be that interested in acting as a whole and Itaru wasn't the most interested and he left practice as soon as he could. 

You were trying your best to look on the bright side and help the others but there was only so much you could do and what you were able to do didn't exactly go a long way. 

_'I'm worried, it's already been a week and Tsuzuru still hasn't left his room yet... If he doesn't have the script done by today then we'll have to resort to using the original Spring Troupe's script for Romeo and Juliet and I might sound rude but I don't think any of the members would do really well as an onnagata...'_

You were deep in thought, as you stared at the bags in your face obstructing your view before closing your eyes for a second, trying to rack your head for something that would be useful to the others. 

Being deep in thought you failed to notice someone walking toward you until you bumped into them, knocking both you and them to the ground. 

You rubbed your head and look up to see all of your groceries strewn across the sidewalk. 

"I'm sorry about that!"

"It's alright I should've watched where I was goi-"

All the words in mouth disappeared once you looked up, your eyes widening at the person standing in front of you giving you their hand. 

You blinked.

He was an attractive male around your age who you would describe as being even more pretty than you.

" _Pretty..._ " You whispered under your breath. 

"What?"

"Nothing!"

You immediately grabbed his hand and he pulled you up, you were surprised at how strong he actually was despite how he looked. 

He then crouched down to pick up the spilled groceries off the sidewalk and putting them back in the bag they were knocked out of. 

"You don't have to do that," you said as you crouched down, helping him pick up the rest. It only took a few more seconds before everything was picked up.

"It's alright," he said, handing over one of the bags to you with a small smile, "I really should've watched where I was going in the first place."

"Thank you so much," you sighed out as you grabbed all of your bags trying your best not to drop them again. 

Seeing you clearly struggle to juggle all of your bags he walked up to you, grabbing your bags from you, lifting the weight off of you. 

You looked up to see him smiling at you. "There's really no need to do that."

"It's fine," he said, looking away, "It kind of my fault for bumping into you in the first place."

You let out a reluctant sigh, glancing down at your feet before looking back up with a small smile. "Thank you... Um..."

You gave him a flustered smile as a faint pink hue grew on your cheeks. "I don't think I got your name," you nervously shot out a hand, "I'm [Y/N] Tachibana."

He grabbed your hand, "It's nice to meet you, I'm Tsumugi Tsukioka."

* * *

You stopped only a few feet away from the dorms, your expression significantly relaxed compared to how you were when you first left to go shopping.

"Thank you so much Tsumugi-kun," you said, bowing your head slightly before looking up at him, the corners of your lips curling up into a small smile.

"I'll talk to your later [Y/N]-san."

You waved back at him with a smile as you watched him walk away leaving you behind outside of the dorms, arms full of bags of groceries. 

"I'm back!" You announced as you walked through the doors of the dorms, catching the attention of Sakuya and Masumi as they walked up to you to help you with your groceries. 

They helped you put away groceries, the sound of the cabinets opening and paper bags crumpling filling the empty silence the filled the room. 

"Has Tsuzuru finished yet?"

Sakuya looked down at his hands after closing the cabinet in front of him, letting out a deep sigh. "Tsuzuru still hasn't come out of his room. I hope he's okay, I'm really starting to worry about him."

You looked out from the corner of your eye to see Citron walk into the room along with Itaru. "Masumi-kun, how's Tsuzuru-kun doing?"

"I don't know," Masumi answered blankly. 

"He's in his room, right?" You asked, this time asking the question a bit more hesitant due to Masumi's rather quick answer that you weren't exactly expecting. 

"Probably."

Your eye twitched. "Probably?! You share a room with him! The two of you are roommates, aren't you? Don't you talk to each other?"

You weren't sure what to even say, sure, Masumi didn't seem to be the most social of individuals but considering the fact that they roommates you thought that they'd at least exchange a few words. 

"No. I don't even notice him."

Your shoulders slumped. "Huh? How is that even possible?"

"He's become one with his computer."

_'Don't tell me...'_

"Has he been working non-stop?"

"Probably."

You groaned at him. "Don't you know any other words than 'probably'?"

You weren't sure what you expected. You knew that giving Tsuzuru only a week to work on a completely new script would mean that he'd spend most of the week working but you had thought that he'd take a break every now and then but it seemed as if he was only doing the bare minimum, leaving only to eat and use the bathroom. 

A deep sigh left your lips. 

Citron took a seat next to you as he let out a sigh, joining in on your conversation about Tsuzuru and his presence in the dorm or lack of a presence lately. 

He brought his arms onto the table, folding his arms and dropping his head into his arms with a groan. "I once tried talking to Tsuzuru, but he showed no reaction."

"It also seems like he hasn't been attending any of his college classes," Itaru commented.

You looked up, surprised. You knew that he was holding himself up in his room but you thought he'd attended at least a few classes during the week. "Really?"

Itaru nodded. "Yeah, he hasn't left the dorm all week, we should probably check in on him. 

You glanced down at your hands as you let out a deep sight. "I guess you're right, the deadline for the script is today, after all..." Your shoulders slumped as you finished speaking, dropping your head into your hands. 

Sakuya looked around the room before looking back at you with a concerned look on his face. "What should we do if he hasn't finished the script yet?"

You reluctantly sat up straight to look at Sakuya, letting out a deep sight before speaking. "We'll just have to use the original Spring Troupe's script."

Sakuya looked at you, eyes wide with shock. "Even if it's only halfway done?"

Propping an arm up on the table you leaned into your hand and let out a soft sigh before giving Sakuya a small frown. "Unfortunately, we can't wait any longer for Tsuzuru to finish it. The amount of practice we get will directly influence the quality of the show, so we need to start the read-through of the script tomorrow."

Sakuya glanced down at his feet, a solemn expression finding its way to his face at your words. "I see..."

You couldn't help but feel bad about what you said but at the same time, you couldn't afford to wait any longer for a script. The Spring Troupe only had a few more weeks to practice until the newly formed Spring Troupe's first performance and considering all riding on the Spring Troupe you couldn't afford to wait for Tsuzuru, no matter how bad you would feel if you had to use a script that wasn't his. 

Itaru crossed his arms as he leaned his back on the wall behind you. 

"It might sound strict but this theatre company isn't an amateur company, so it can't really be helped," Itaru sighed out. 

_'I feel guilty about being the one that has to give him the final notice personally, but that's what signed up for when I became the director. We've already wasted an entire week of practice, I hope we can make it up before the performance...'_

You let out a deep sigh before pushing your chair back and standing up. "I'm going to talk to Tsuzuru-kun."

"I'm coming too!" Sakuya stood up causing his chair to squeak as he pushed away from the table. 

"I'm worried too," Citron added. 

"I'll go if you go."

"Of course you will Masumi-kun," you whispered under your breath. 

Looking over your shoulder you were surprised to see Itaru walking away, not joining the others as you got ready to talk to Tsuzuru. "What about, Itaru-san?"

He paused in his steps before looking over his shoulder, shooting you a small smile and wave. "I'm sorry, but can I return to my room? I've also been feeling pretty bad since last night so I might have to miss today's practice too..."

You tilted your head as you inched closer. "Huh? Are you all right? You don't have to go to the doctor, do you?" 

He waved off your concerns with a small smile. "I'll be alright, I just think I need a little rest to get better."

"Okay," you said reluctantly, your face still full of concern, "Please take care of yourself."

"I will. See you later."

You looked over to the others with a small smile trying your best to sound as positive as you thought possible though you're sure that it didn't sound nearly as positive as you would've hoped. "Well, shall we go, guys?"

All four of you made your way to Tsuzuru's room to see how he was doing. You feel behind the others rather quickly as you got lost in your thought, slowing down with every step that you took. 

_'Maybe it was a mistake in letting Tsuzuru-kun be in charge of something so important...'_

Before you knew it you were in front of his and Masumi's dorm. You took a deep breath before lifting your hand up to knock on the door.

You cringed slightly at the sound of your fist against the wooden door. "Tsuzuru-kun, are you there? Today'sn the deadline so I want to talk to you about the script."

A few seconds of silence passed as all four of you stood in silence waiting for a response from the college student only to be met with silence in response. 

"Tsuzuru-kun?"

"He's not replying."

"Maybe he's in the middle of a nap," Citron suggested.

"I think he's dead."

You whipped your head to look at Masumi. "What?! Don't jump to conclusions like that! We're coming Tsuzuru-kun!"

Pushing the door open your narrowed your eyes at the lack of light as you moved your hand along the wall to find the light switch until you finally found it, switching it on as quickly as you could. 

You looked at the ground in shock to see Tsuzuru laying on the ground looking like, well, looking like he was dead and had been for a while.

"Ah! He isn't dead, is he?!"

"Of course he's not dead... I think..." Sakuya crouched down to Tsuzuru, his face riddled with concern for the older boy. "He collapsed! Are you alright, Tsuzuru-kun?!"

"Oh, Tsuzuru! You died on us!"

You looked around panicked. "Should we call an ambulance-"

You stopped midsentence when you felt someone tap on your shoulder. Looking over your shoulder you saw Masumi pointing over his shoulder at a Tsuzuru's side of the room.

"Computer.

"Eh?"

"Look at the computer."

You walked over to the computer, doing as Masumi suggested. "Ah, did he write something...?"

Sakuya walked over to you, inching closer to read the words on the screen. "Uhh, 'DONE'?"

"Done... You mean, you're done?! You mean you're done with the script?! Tsuzuru-kun?!" 

You turned around, absolutely ecstatic, and ran over to Tsuzuru-kun more than excited with the revelation. "He's sleeping."

Sakuya let out a sigh of relief as he made his way over to you and Tsuzuru. "That's a relief, he's only sleeping. 

"Isn't that a relief?," you said as you took a seat next to him on his bed as you lips curled up into a small smile, "He managed to finish it on time, I don't think I've ever been excited about someone barely missing a deadline."

You jumped up from the bed and turned to the others with a smile. "Now that we've got a script we have to print it immediately so that we can start practicing!"

Sakuya jumped up in excitement, raising a hand. "Let me do!"

"Sure."

Citron leaned on the bed, gently shaking Tsuzuru's shoulders. "Tsuzuru, Tsuzuru, wake up."

"Let's let Tsuzuru-kun sleep a little bit more. I'm sure he's been working hard this entire time without getting any sleep."

"Oh, you're right. There are big bears under his eyes."

Your eye twitched. "It's 'bags', not 'bears'." You said, correcting him. 

"Come on you two let's get going." 

Standing in the doorway with your hand of the door you looked over your shoulder at Tsuzuru with a small smile. "Get some rest Tsuzuru-kun."

* * *

You sank into the couch as you flipped through the newly printed scrip, reading it with a small smile. "Let's see... The new title is 'Romeo and... Julius'?" 

Standing behind you Sakuya leaned on the couch from behind you, looking at the script in your hands, squinting his eyes as he read it in your hands before you handed it to him. 

"I guess Juliet's a guy in this version," Sakuya commented standing up straight, passing it to Masumi as he walked over to him. 

Masumi arched a brow before handing it back to you. "So, it's like some dude on dude thing?"

"Oh, how novel."

You flipped through it some more, skimming over it as quickly as possible, reading as much as you could as quickly as you possibly could, taking in as much of the story as possible. "I think it's more of a story about the friendship between two men." 

Turning your head down you smiled softly to yourself. "It looks like I was wrong to doubt Tsuzuru-kun."

_'It's certainly a lot better than I thought it would be considering the fact that he was only given a week to write it.'_

Sakuya smiled brightly as you went on about the script, he could hardly sit still at how excited he was. "I think the script is really interesting!"

It was impossible not to smile at the excitement exuding from Sakuya. "I agree. He didn't just change the gender of Juliet but he also turned it into a friendship drama."

You looked at both Citron and Masumi. "Well, what do you think, Citron-kun, Masumi-kun?"

"It'sm good."

"It's okay, I guess."

The three watched as you stood up from the couch, smoothing out your clothes, the script in one your hand. "Well then, I guess we should assign everyone's roles based on—"

You paused as you heard loud footsteps approaching. You jumped slightly as Tsuzuru ran into the room, breathing heavily as he attempted to catch his breath, leaned against the wall. 

"[Y/N], the script!"

You walked over to him with a concerned expression on your face. "Tsuzuru-kun? Did you get enough sleep?"

Tsuzuru looked up at you not bothering to answer your question as he glanced over to the script in your hands. "H-How's... the script?"

You smiled at him. "It's perfect. We'll use it for next month's performance."

He looked up at you, eyes wide with shock before hurrying to stand up straight. "Really?!"

You nodded. "Yep."

Tsuzuru blinked as if trying to take everything in not quite believing that you, in fact, approved using his script to use it in the first performance of the "new" Mankai Theatre.

He let out a sigh of relief as he leaned back onto the wall. "I did it! What a relief..."

At this point, your cheeks were hurting from how much you were smiling but you couldn't help it, everything seemed to go a lot better than you ever thought they would. "Thank you for your hard work. I was wondering how you would solve the issue with the female role, but I didn't think you would solve it by coming up with this idea."

Sakuya gave an excited nod as he walked up to you and Tsuzuru. "Turning Juliet into a guy was a good idea. How did you come up with the idea to make Juliet a boy in the first place?"

Tsuzuru scratched the back of his head as he stood up straight. "It's not really like Romeo and Juliet, but... I used my own experiences. I was separated from a friend because of our families once."

You tilted your head to the side. "So it's based off of your own experiences?"

Tsuzuru blinked and looked down at his feet, avoiding eye contact. "Well, not exactly, my family was poor, and my friend came from a wealthy family, so his parents told him not to play with me anymore... We got along well, but we don't really talk anymore."

Citron let out a sigh. "I understand how you feel. Adult affairs are a pain."

Tsuzuru's eye twitched at Citron's words as he let out a deep sigh, running a hand down his face. "You mean adult issues, you always make things sound sketchy in an instant."

"So you changed the ending of the story as well, huh. Instead of being separated from each other, the story ends happily with the two of them going on a journey together." Sakuya commented. 

Tsuzuru took a seat and you followed suit. "I heard that the original Spring Troupe had a bright, cheerful image, so I thought it'd be better to go with that image as well."

"You're right. I think this script is excellent for the Reborn Spring Troupe's debut performance."

You clapped your hands catching everyone's attention. "Now we should decide on roles."

"Um," Tsuzuru raised his hand, "I actually had roles in mind for everyone when I was writing the script."

You blinked before taking a seat back down. "Is that so?"

He nodded. "I imagined Sakuya as the main character, Romeo."

All eyes in the room turned to Sakuya.

Sakuya blinked as he processed the information that he just heard. He turned a bright red as he realized what Tsuzuru just said, eyes widening in shock, still not quite believing the words coming from the older boy. "Eh?! M-Me?!"

He looked around the room, whipping his head back and forth before leaning forward, pointing at himself. "Really?"

Tsuzuru gave him a soft smile. "Well, you were the first member to join the company, and you were the first member out of all of us and you seem the most Spring Troupe-like."

Sakuya still looked surprised, he looked up at you as if looking for confirmation for what Tsuzuru was saying from you. 

You nodded, giving him a comforting smile. "Yeah, Sakuya-kun has the classic image of a Spring Troupe member, bright

energetic, and straightforward."

"Agreed."

Sakuya blushed, it seemed as if he wasn't able to take praise and hearing how earnest you and Tsuzuru sounded made it even more difficult to except.

"No, please." He could barely get words in as he appeared to get even more flustered with every word that he said. "As long as I can stand on the stage, I'm good with playing a supporting role or even being the background!"

You and Tsuzuru looked at each other from the corner of your eye, exchanging looks. You let out a nervous laugh. "The background isn't really a role."

Sakuya looked away from you as he turned his gaze to the floor. "But, I mean," he glanced back up at the two of you for a second before immediately looking back down, "Are you sure it's okay for me to...?"

You and Tsuzuru exchanged looks before looking back at Sakuya giving him comforting smiles. Of course, it's okay."

"Yeah, I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't think you were the perfect fit."

He looks surprised before he turned to Citron and Masumi to see their reaction. 

"No protein."

Both you and Tsuzuru unconsciously groaned and dropped your heads at Citron's words. 

Tsuzuru turned his head, looking over at Citron with a tired expression. "It's **problem** , but at least now we know that you're week languages other than Japanese."

You all looked at Masumi who merely shrugged. "I don't care."

You jumped up from the couch and clapped your hands. "Then it's decided! Sakuya-kun will be the protagonist for the Spring Troupe's debut performance!"

Sakuya smiled brightly. "I'll work hard!"

"By the way, I'm thinking of making the protagonist the leader of the Spring Troupe as well. Can you do it?"

Sakuya stiffened. "Leader...? I'm not sure if I can do it."

"Don't worry about it too much Sakuya-kun. I'm sure you can do it."

He looked up at you and took a deep breath. "I'll do my best!"

"That's the spirit!"

You walked over to Tsuzuru, taking a seat of the arm of the couch as you leaned in to take a closer look at the script. "So who did you chose for the other roles?"

Tsuzuru flipped through the script without looking up as he read out the rest of the casting. "Julius is Masumi."

"Hmm." Masumi gave a curt nod. 

"I'll play Romeo's friend, Mercutio, and Itaru-san will play Julius's older brother figure, Tybalt."

"Hmm, it suits everyone's ages too." You hummed. 

Tsuzuru temporarily froze as he stopped on one page, cringing silently to himself before looking up at the older male in front of him. "And Friar Lawrence is..." He looked away and let out a reluctant sigh. "Friar Lawrence is Citron-san."

Citron wilted into the pouting man-child that you already knew him to be. "Oh, but the Friar only has a few lines."

"It's intentional," Tsuzuru bluntly added. 

Citron puffed out his cheeks. "So you're just bullying me because I'm a newcomer overflowing with talent."

Tsuzuru's eye twitched as he gave an annoyed expression that nearly sent you into a fit of hysterics. 

"You can barely speak proper Japanese!"

You sighed softly as he ran a hand through your hair. "The friar really doesn't have many lines, but he leaves a strong impact on the audience in the short time he's on stage. It's a perfect role of Citron-kun."

"Yep."

You beamed at him. "You're so amazing Tsuzuru-kun! Not only did you write an amazing script in a week but you perfectly cast everyone! This is amazing, now all we have left to do is practice and perform in our best condition!"

Tsuzuru turned his head to see anyone else's reaction. Sakuya flashed him a smile as he agreed with you, excitedly nodding at the older teen.

Tsuzuru looked away with a relieved smile. "It seems like Practice is going to be tough, huh."

"I'm looking forward to it," Citron commented with a smile.

Masumi took a seat next to you, watching you with an amused smile. "You're really excited about this."

You looked at him before looking down with a smile. "Of course I am. Tsuzuru-kun wrote an amazing script, after all. I can't wait for practice."

Masumi frowned though to be completely honest it wasn't all that different from the expression that he usually wore on his face. "Hmm. Maybe I should write a script too..."

An exasperated sigh. 

"Masumi-kun, you should really just do your best as an actor..."

You clapped your hands twice as you got up, jumping off the couch with a hop in your step. "Well then, now that that's settled we'll start practicing lines tomorrow so make to read your scripts thoroughly!"

* * *

You smiled as you made your way to Itaru's room. You were practically skipping as you made your way through the door, a pep in every step you took.

Your cheeks were hurting from how much you were smiling but you couldn't help it, everything seemed to be going your way despite the rough start that you had.

_'Thanks to Tsuzuru's finished script was more motivated in practice than I've ever seen them before. I should hurry up and hand Itaru-san the script and let him know about his role... I hope he's feeling better now.'_

Stopping in front of his door you looked up from the script in your hands and knocked on his door, not loud enough to make you recoil or cringe but just enough to make sure he would hear. 

A moment of silence passed as you waited, standing still in the hallway as you waited for the door to open or to even get a simple response. 

You waited for a few more seconds for a response before letting out a deep sigh, knocking again, much louder this time. "Itaru-san, are you there? It's me, Tachibana."

"..."

Letting out a deep sigh you scratched the back of your head and turned as you got ready to leave, maybe he still wasn't feeling well and was getting some sleep.

You stopped when you heard a muffled noise coming from his room. You took a step closer to his door and leaned your head against it, there were soft clicking noises coming from inside. 

It was soft but it was there for sure, he was awake. 

"Itaru-san? I'm coming in!"

With your hand on the doorknob, you turned and took a step in, hearing Itaru's words a second too late. 

"Don't come in!"

You froze up, slowly stepping back until you hit the wall letting out a small thud as you back came into contact with it. You looked up in shock at what you were seeing. 

"You've gotta be kidding me. I just missed at least three kills with that." He turned to you with a glare. "You're dead, shrimp." 

"I-I-Itaru-san?!"

You had no idea what was going on and you weren't sure you wanted to know. It was just hard to believe that the Itaru that you were talking to only a few hours earlier was the same person standing in front of you.

"Don't come barding in without my permission! Can't you tell I'm in the middle of something?"

Your breath hitched as you looked at Itaru, his face only a few inches away from yours making your heart race faster than you would've liked to admit. 

_'H-his face is so close... I-Is... Is he kabedoning me?!'_

You took a deep gulp as you stared back up at him with wide eyes.

_'This is how the kabedon that I always dreamt about is happening?!'_

Somehow you were finally able to find your voice... granted you could barely speak above a whisper and when you did speak it was unbearably high pitched. "Y-You're busy playing games, right?"

You glanced to the side and took a deep breath before looking back at him as you asked him a question that made you internally hit yourself over the head at how stupid it was. "Who are you?"

_'Who are you? **Who Are you?! WHO ARE YOU?! ** What are you an idiot? It's obvious that it's Itaru-san why are you such an idiot in these types of situations?!'_

"Itaru Chigasaki, so what?"

_'I don't understand. Itaru was so calm and relaxed earlier.'_

You looked down at the script in your arms and squeaked as you pushed it into his chest. "Y-You must be feeling really unwell, right?! Um, this is the script! Please read it! Your role is also written in there! Please take care! I'm sorry for intruding!"

You turned on your heels, bursting out the doors of his room just as your face erupted in an almost inhumanly strong, bright red blush. 

_'That was certainly something, but there's no need to worry about that, he'll be better tomorrow, I'm sure of it... He is going to be fine tomorrow. right?'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reader had her fantasies of a kabedon completely ruined by Itaru
> 
> A.N.
> 
> I know it's way too early for Tsumugi to appear but my bias took over and I couldn't help it so he just appeared and I couldn't stop myself.
> 
> I also think this is the first time in a hot minute that I've updated on schedule so that pretty cool, also Reader and Tsuzuru are basically Sakuya's parents at this point.


	11. CHAPTER NINE | WHAT TO DO?

To the average person that you passed by you seemed like a normal young woman going about her day, her plans going down a hitch. 

**_But they were wrong._ **

You were internally screaming as you recapped what had just happened just an hour ago for what seemed like the 900th time.

What?

Who?

Why?

Huh?

That was the only understandable words that were racing through your mind as the surprisingly intimidating (unintentional) shoujo manga technique done by Itaru continued to repeat in your head without any intention of stopping anytime soon.

_'I can't believe that happened...'_

...

_'I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT HAPPENED!'_

There were no words to describe how you felt at the moment, well at least no words that you knew of.

It had been at least two hours since your... let's just say unique exchange with the older man and the interactions were still fresh in your mind as if it had only happened a few minutes earlier. 

You were still in shock about the change in Itaru's personality though now that you think about it he probably was like that all the time but he probably was just hiding it with his "responsible older brother" and "standard salaryman" personalities. 

Finding out how Itaru really was when he wasn't practising or going to and coming back from work definitely gave you whiplash. 

But that wasn't even the worst thing about your interaction with the older man. 

The worst thing wasn't even the reveal of his "true" personality the worse thing about what had just occurred was how he ruined the kabedon that you've been fantasizing about since you were in middle school. 

Ever since you were in middle school you always fantasized about being kabedoned and you had the ideal kadebon in your mind from your years of watching and reading shojo anime and manga and Itaru ruined all of that in a single moment. 

You could scream at the top of your lungs...

And that's exactly what you did. 

**"Aaaahhh!"**

"[Y/N]-san?"

"Ah!"

You screamed at the voice that suddenly appeared as you felt someone standing only a few feet behind you. You jumped away with a high pitched squeak that you were less than happy at for even letting out. 

With much reluctance, you pried an eye open.

"Tsumugi-kun?"

The moment you saw him you felt the blood rush to your cheeks in a matter of seconds at the realization that he definitely witnessed your random fit of screaming at the top of your lungs. 

Tsumugi tilted his head to the side as he gave you a look of concern. "Are you okay?"

You're practically glowing a bright red by now. It takes a few seconds of your stuttering and stumbling over your words before you're able to get out a proper sentence that could be understood. 

"I'm fine," you let out a nervous laugh, "You just scared me is all."

Despite having only known you for a few hours Tsumugi couldn't help but worry about you and your _interesting_ behavior, after all, when you see someone yelling at the top of their lungs in the middle of a park at nine at night you tend to think they're not in the best state of mind. 

"But weren't you- weren't you yelling before I showed up?"

It should be impossible but somehow you burn an ever deeper red as you feel your skin start to burn as the blood rushes to your cheeks.

"Uhm... I-, Well, you see—"

Your eyes dart around taking in all of your surroundings except for the person in front of you. 

While trying to avoid suspicion or any awkwardness by avoiding eye contact you did the exact opposite as a deep silence began to form between the two of you. 

"[Y/N]-sa-"

 **"So what are you doing here Tsumugi-kun?"** You asked while enunciating every single word as you let out a nervous laugh in an attempt to change the subject. 

"I was just going on a walk but that doesn't quite answer my question."

Your shoulders dropped as you turned away, a dark cloud seeming to appear above your head. "Right..."

Tsumugi flinched at how quickly your mood deteriorated from embarrassed, desperate to come up with an excuse to depressed in mere seconds. 

"[Y/N]-san!"

He ran over to you almost immediately, helping you pick up everything you dropped, continuing to hurl apologies your way without even pausing to take a breath. 

"I'm really sorry if you don't want to talk about it."

There was a few seconds of silence before hearing the soft sound of the grass crunching beneath him as he made his way over to you. 

Finally after a few seconds of silence, still embarrassed, the heat of your cheeks still very much present, you looked up at the older man who was now in front of you, crouching down to look at you at eye level. 

Tsumugi sighed softly while a small smile curled at his lips, tugging upwards. 

He murmured softly under his breath but just loud enough for you to hear. 

"Why don't we just talk for a few minutes?"

* * *

Despite not wanting to say too much in hopes to not scare him away the moment you opened your mouth everything started spilling out.

From your dad running away all those years ago and how you only came back to learn more about him to Itaru's desecration of the beauty that is a kabedon.

"I'm sure you don't _**need**_ to stay and help with the theatre if it's causing that much trouble for you."

You let out a deep sigh as you leaned back into the bench throwing your hands behind it, relaxing into the bench as you felt the cold metal against your hands. 

"It's not really that..."

He tilted his head to the side as you said that, the expression on his face changing from worry to confusion. 

"Then what is it-"

Tsumugi could barely get his question out when he was interrupted by you basically jumping in front of his face, grabbing his hands and holding them tightly as you broke them close to you. 

"He ruined my first kabedon, anyone that reads shoujo manga dreams of their first kabedon and he ruined it, it wasn't even romantic! It was just confusing and annoying and—"

No words left his lips as he watched you in amusement, the corners of his lips curling upward into a small and soft smile.

His lips began to quiver as he shook slightly trying his best to hold in his laughter until he couldn't any longer, descending into a fit of laughter. 

Your face began to burn an intense red as you listened to his laughter with no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Tsumugi felt tears form in his eyes as he grabbed his stomach, still not believing that _**that**_ was your reasoning behind you randomly yelling at the top of your lungs in the middle of the park. 

"Sorry-sorry," he laughed out, wiping away a tear from his eyes before looking up at you with a small smile. 

A moment of silence passed by as he attempted to catch his breath, turning his head up to look at the sky, a thin smile growing across his face. 

You shot up from the bench, your shoulders stiffening as you looked forward being way too embarrassed to look back at the older male. 

"This was stupid for me to bring up! I'm sorry, I'll get goin-"

Taking a step forward you got ready to run away, your head was light from the embarrassment that riddled your head from Tsumugi's laughter but as soon as you got ready to run you felt an arm on your wrist holding you back.

"It's fine," he tilted his head to the side as he flashed you a thin smile, "You shouldn't overreact so much."

At the sounds of his words you felt your shoulders slump as you turned back to face him, your eyes turned down to look at your feet.

"You shouldn't force yourself to do anything [Y/N]-san."

He paused. 

A small smile found it's way to his lips as he turned his down as if a memory he wasn't fond of thinking about came to his mind at the words he spouted. 

A deep sigh left his lips before he turned his head up to look you in the eye. "You shouldn't force yourself to do something that you'll regret in the future."

* * *

"We're going to be reading the script aloud starting today. Everyone has read through the script, right?"

Sakuya looked up from the script with a bright smile. "Yes! Please take care of me," he gave a small bow of his head. 

If there was something you were glad about taking up the job as the director of the theatre, even if it wasn't really your choice in the beginning, it was definitely Sakuya. 

He reminded you of a puppy that wanted to please everyone around them. 

"I only have five lines," Citron pouted as he stared at Tsuzuru with puppy dog eyes. 

Said teen continued to ignore the older male as he turned his attention away from the script to you. "I'm good, I was the one who wrote the script so I have everything in my head already."

You gave the younger boy a small nod before reluctantly turning to the person that was the main reason for why you were extremely hesitant to even show up to practice. 

Despite your feelings, you forced a small smile on your face, trying your best to hide any signs of annoyance or confusion as you looked over to Itaru. 

"Itaru-san, have you read the script?"

He smiled in a friendly way. "Yeah, thanks for bringing it to me. I was half asleep at the time, though so I hope I didn't do anything strange."

You froze for a second before awkwardly raising your hand off to wave away his concerns. "N-no, you were perfectly fine. Don't worry about it."

All you could do was laugh awkwardly as you watched him turn to the others and start a friendly conversation, it was as if what happened yesterday didn't happen. 

_'Does he seriously not know what happened?'_

You couldn't believe that he had absolutely no idea what happened between the two of you, after all, it wasn't like he said something small that he could've forgotten.

He quite literally kabedoned you like he was the main love interest in a generic shoujo manga. 

Even if he was tired would he seriously forget something like that?

It just didn't make any sense to you whatsoever. 

After a few more short conversations and getting everyone down to practice their lines the rehearsal didn't exactly go as well as you expected it to go.

Masumi isn't exactly a people's person but you didn't expect him to be so blunt with his words especially when he had to perform with these people.

You're sure that he didn't mean it to be outright rude but that didn't mean it made anything that he said right exactly, he just needed to have a bit more tact. 

Straight up criticizing someone as bluntly as Masumi did was sure to get on people's nerves and it definitely did get on Tsuzuru's nerves especially with Masumi's less than kind comments. 

All you could was heavily sigh to yourself as leaned back against the wall, your hand running down your face as you replayed the disaster of a rehearsal in your head. 

You thought you just had to deal with things such as props, costumes, and some acting considering most of them had little to no acting experience but it now you have to deal with the animosity between them. 

Why did you even think that you wouldn't have to deal with problems between them?

It was more than obvious that there were major differences between all of them and it was clear as day that some things they said was exactly thing that should be said. 

"[Y/N]-san?"

After a few minutes of thinking to yourself in silence, you were interrupted by the sudden arrival of a familiar voice taking you out of your thoughts. 

Turning your head up you were met by the sight of Tsuzuru peeking into the practice room looking rather apologetic. He took a closed his eyes tightly, taking a deep breath before coming inside and sliding down onto the floor beside you.

"Is there something wrong Tsuzuru-kun?"

He flinched slightly at your words as he looked away, grabbing the back of his head before turning back. A deep sigh left his lips as he dropped his shoulders. 

"I'm sorry about what happened earlier."

There's a moment of silence as he pauses to take a deep breath. 

"We have to get along and the way we were all acting isn't really the best for everything."

You think about those words for a moment. While you were annoyed at first you were more frustrated at the arguing so just hearing Tsuzuru just apology lifted a heavier weight off your shoulders than you knew existed. 

"It's alright Tsuzuru-kun," you paused and looked down at your feet, "Just promise me you'll at least try to get along with the others, especially Masumi-kun."

He cringed slightly at the name of the less than tactful teen falling from your lips. 

That was what he was afraid you were going to say. 

He didn't have any problems with the young male, it wasn't as if he hated him, after all, he wouldn't have continued to be in the same troupe or even continue to be roommates if that was the case. 

It was just that the teen tended to get on his nerves with the way he acted and spoke. He was too blunt about everything he said and offered little to no advice with his criticism. 

While he didn't want to get along with him, solely based on wanting to be petty he reluctantly turned his gaze from the ground and back to you, giving you a hesitant nod. 

"I promise I'll try my best to get along with Masumi."

* * *

Peeking from above a stack of cardboard boxes Matsukawa sent you a thankful smile. "Thanks for helping me out with cleaning out the storage room [Y/N]."

You waved off his concerns with a carefree wave and a small smile. "It's no problem Matsukawa, I didn't have anything to do anyway."

Plus you were more interested in getting your mind after everything that had been going on with the play lately. Nothing has been going your way. 

The boys seemed to have gotten along a lot better than they usually did and you were more than grateful for that, it was one less thing to worry about. 

While you were glad about that, they still weren't the best when it came to the read-through of the script, it was still common for them to trip over their lines or sound too wooden. 

A simple escape of all the things that were stressing you out so much was something that much needed even if it was only cleaning out a crowded storage room. 

"[Y/N] has things been doing good in practice?"

Of course, it had to be brought up.

Not that it was shocking that it would be brought up by him of all people considering the fact that the main reason why you even became the director of the theatre was that he wanted to prevent it from getting torn down. 

You sighed softly as you walked out the door, a stack of boxes in your arms, carefully placing them down in front of the door to prevent the door from slamming shut. 

"It's been going better than it was going when we started but..."

Matsukawa's shoulders drooped at your words before continuing your words. "But considering how bad they were when they first started that's not saying much, is it?"

You reluctantly nodded your head at his words, making him slump down to the floor, running his hands over his face as he let out a long sigh. 

With not much to do you joined him, sliding down the wall to the floor next to him, following suit and letting out a long sigh at everything that has happened. 

Things were not going well and you barely had any time left to practice until the first show of the newly formed Spring Troupe.

What exactly were you supposed to do?

Matsukawa watched with a concerned expression as you mulled over everything in your head, thinking about solutions before you quickly shut then down. 

You pulled your legs close to your chest as you dropped your head, covering your face with your hands as you felt the stress and thoughts of everything overwhelm you. 

Matsukawa dropped a hand atop your head breaking you out of your overwhelming thoughts, you felt your heartbeat slow down as he pat your head.

Hesitantly, you slowly look up from your hands to see Matsukawa, looking down at you with a soft smile. 

You lock eyes for a few long heartbeats. 

A deep blush spread across Matsukawa's face as he looked away, casting his eyes away from you out of uncertainty and awkwardness. 

Despite his embarrassment, he continued to pat your head. "You're just a human, it's not your fault that the practices haven't been going well."

He didn't expect you to take care of everything and worry about everything without getting any help whatsoever but thinking about it, it wasn't exactly hard to understand why you'd think you had to. 

While he didn't seem like the smartest or most aware person on the outside, he was more than aware that he wasn't the type of person that people looked to for help or even depended on for small things. 

After all, if he was then he would've never asked you to become the director and help revive the theatre and prevent it from being shut down. 

Despite his behaviour, he never wanted to put too much pressure on you to make sure things were a success, it was never his intention for that to happen to you. 

There wasn't much he could think of saying to try and comfort you. 

What was he supposed to say?

That despite not being the most reliable person you could depend on him for things if you need help with something. 

Yeah right, even thinking that made him want to scoff. Those words just made him want to bang his head, those words would just make you think that you had to everything yourself and feel more pressure than you already felt. 

"I-"

He paused. 

Could there really be anything that he could say that would sound that comforting?

A slow, deep breath. 

"I just wanted to remind you that if you're ever having to much trouble I'm still here, so please don't hesitate to ask me for help whenever things get too much for you."

Your lips curl into a small smile. 

"Thanks, Matsukawa."

A deep silence over the two of you as you leaned your heads back onto the wall, turning your head up to look at the pale white ceiling with bored expressions. 

There were no ideas that were popping into your head. 

Just what on earth could you and Matsukawa do to try and help them improve even just a little for the upcoming play, there were obvious flaws in their acting. 

"I know!"

Your face snaps upright. "Huh?"

Matsukawa's appears to ignore your surprise as he shoots up on his feet, flashing you a small grin as you reluctantly got up off the floor. 

A sheepish look overtakes Matsukawa's face.

"I can contact someone from the original troupe!"

In your excitement, you straighten up upon hearing those words as an awestruck smile graces your lips. "Really?"

"Yup," he said, giving a confident nod as he let down a sound of acknowledgement, "I'll call him right away!"

Maybe things weren't going to crash and burn like you initially thought they were. 

All you could do was smile as you looked up at the older male, sending him a thumbs up. 

"I'm counting on you Matsukawa!"

The relief in your voice is all too clear. 

He turns on his heels as he gets ready to leave. You watch as he hurried out to the living room to give his contact a call to come over. 

You couldn't help but smile. 

While it was something so small just seeing Matsukawa so excited in contrast to his usual anxious and awkward persona. It would be weird if you weren't excited at his change in attitude. 

"He's almost out of the doorway when you make the decision to bring your hands up to your mouth to call his name. 

Making a sharp stop with his hand on the doorway, he looks back at you with a slightly confused expression, a thin smile still on his face. 

"Thanks for everything."

He paused as he took in your words, waiting for a few more seconds before sending you back a smile. 

"Of course, don't worry about it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N.
> 
> Tsuzuru and Matsukawa and babies
> 
> Sorry I haven't updated in a hot minute, I've just had writer's block with this story and it's mostly because I tried to stick with the main story so much so I've made the decision to not like just do this story by following the original storyline by line.


	12. CHAPTER TEN | NOT A FAILURE?

Well, that certainly was not what to had expected to happen with the former member of the Spring Troupe.

Sure, Matsukawa did warn you about him but you did not expect him to be as blunt and harsh as he was, maybe it would've been better to just sick a wild animal on them.

It probably would've had the same effect on them as Yuzo's critique of their performance. 

Though, if you were being honest there really wasn't anything incorrect with any of the things that he said to everyone. His critique was spot on. 

You let out a sigh as you buried your face into your hands. 

It was a long shot but you tried to get some information out of him regarding your dad but of course, your attempts weren't successful in the slightest. 

Of course, you weren't really expecting to get much if any information but it was still disappointing nonetheless. Maybe it would've been better if you never asked about him at all. 

You shook your head harshly before turning your head down, gazing down at your hands as you furrowed your brows. Daggers glared into your lap as you continued to think about him. 

What was even the point of thinking about him?

It wasn't like he was even worth a second of your time, if he wanted to be worth any of your time he wouldn't have up and left without warning. 

You were being more than a hypocrite. 

The main reason why you even came to Veludo Way in the first place was to try and get some information about him if you weren't going to find him. 

Maybe your friends were right, maybe it was a bad idea to come back. It was probably an even worse idea to try and build a company that was long pace it's expiration back from the ground up. 

It wasn't like you had much hope for it no matter how much you tried to tell yourself that. 

Some things just had a time to go and other places were around for a while but maybe Mankai wasn't that sort of place. It was probably just a place that was meant to be amazing for a time before eventually disappearing into obscurity. 

You groaned into your palms. 

These depressing thoughts were really starting to get to you. 

All of your optimism about the theatre was starting to go down the drain, who'd think that hearing someone give out some critique would affect you that much. 

The fact that it wasn't even directed towards you made things even worse than they already were. 

Everyone was already struggling with things, they barely made it through the performance and it wasn't what you'd call good in the slightest.

Well, it wasn't like you could sit around and mope around about how terrible things were being, now could you?

You reluctantly stood up, dusting off your clothes as you grabbed your bag and walked over to the door but not without saying goodbye to Matsukawa. 

"Bye Matsukawa."

Without a single warning, said man rushed over to you and clamped his hands on your shoulder with a tight grip that you didn;'t even know he was possible of. 

You were about to open your mouth to say something but you stopped yourself the moment you saw the look on his face. 

_'Is he serious?'_

Tilting your head you to the side you simply arched a brow. "Are you- Are you crying Matsukawa?"

Nothing you wanted to say would leave your lips. 

You weren't exactly concerned about him no matter how bad that may sound on the outside. Matsukawa tended to be a bit over-emotional and the sight of him looking like he was about to cry or even straight-up crying wasn't something that you weren't used to. 

Though there was usually a reason behind him crying even if it was something as small as him forgetting to close the door to his room.

You were more confused than anything. 

As far as you were concerned nothing bad has happened and nothing that was on your list of **'Matsukawa's Concerns'** had occurred so there was really no reason for him to cry. 

"Please don't leave!"

Huh?

You tried to say something but you were stopped by Matsukawa who looked like he was on the brink of tears. If you were being honest you were surprised he wasn't crying already. 

"I can barely open the fridge door without doing anything wrong I can't take care of everything without you!"

_'Haven't you been running Mankai Theatre for a good few years before I even showed up?'_

"Matsukawa," you sighed out. "I'm just going out to do some window shopping," you deadpanned, the monotone in your voice was more than enough to make him back off as he backed away immediately. 

His face was glowing a deep red from embarrassment, he couldn't even look you in the eye as he nervous backed away even more. 

You watched with a blank expression as he bumped into things, apologizing to the inanimate objects as he tried to get out of your line of vision. 

"I'm honestly not sure what to think of him anymore."

* * *

Just how did this happen in the first place?

The last thing you said to Matsukawa before leaving was that you were going to take a small trip into town to do some window shopping. 

You certainly did not expect to meet up with the very person that was essentially the source of all of your recent stress and worry with the theatre. 

He was the last person you wanted to see. 

Things were going absolutely terribly and seeing him just made things even worse. 

You walked in awkward silence side by side with Sakyo who you somehow managed to run into while you were in one of the bookstores in town. 

Just what were the chances?

You've managed to avoid him perfectly for the past few weeks but now you were running into him, your entire reason in going into town was to try and get rid of at least some of your stress. 

"So..." Cracked out. 

That was a terrible attempt at starting conversations. 

Of all of your conversation attempts that was definitely in the top of the worst if not the top one outright. Just what were you expecting to happen?

He didn't even both to look at you, most likely to not even hearing you but having heard yourself was more than enough to embarrass you. 

Your voice probably hasn't cracked like that since you were in middle school and it just had to crack in front of the first person you didn't want to. 

Couldn't he at least say something?

If it wasn't to you he could've at the very least mumble something softly to himself. 

All he was doing was making everything even more awkward as the seconds slowly passed by, it was starting to be suffocating to walk with him.

Maybe you could make a run for it...?

You shook your head. 

Nope, you couldn't do that. 

He still had one of your bags from shopping earlier in his hand, if you ran away not only would it be mean the money you spent would go to waste as you left him with your things; it also meant you would have a rather embarrassing reunion with him when you had to meet up with him. 

This wasn't how you wanted to say to go. 

Everything seemed to be going even worse than it was earlier before. 

First, everyone has to argue with each other leaving you to end rehearsal early but now you had to deal with Sakyo despite how nervous you were feeling. 

You glanced at the older man from the corner of your eye. 

If you didn't know he was a sadist with the expectations that he had for you, you would've thought he was a good looking businessman but unfortunately that wasn't the case. 

Feeling eyes on him, the blonde glanced over at you with a nonchalant look on his face, causing you to flinch as you freeze in place.

The older man could only stop as he looked back at you, tilting his head as he arched a brow at you. "Is there something wrong with you?"

Your eye twitched. 

He couldn't have afforded to be even a little nicer with his words?

Sure, the two of you weren't too friendly due to the situation that you had to deal with but he could at least have the courtesy to have basic manners, right?

For someone that looked like he would've had even the tiniest amount of manners he sure was unbelievably rude. Even Masumi was nicer than he was. 

He got into arguments with Tsuzuru all the time but at least he would apologize on a rare occasion and help you with things.

Sakyo did help you out by giving you a hand and caring your bags but he really needed to work on the way that he spoke to people, he asked a simple question yet it still sounded like he was insulting you. 

A sigh left your lips as you turned away huffing out, "You know it's not that hard to have basic manners, even children know how to sound nice when they talk..."

"What was that?"

_'Crap!'_

Your face froze into a nervous grin as you slowly turned your head to the side to look at the blonde.

_'Did I really say that out loud?! I thought I was just talking inside of my head. Why would I be so stupid and say that out loud, if something I was thinking was going to be said out loud couldn't it have been me thinking he was attractive?-'_

Sakyo's brow twitched. "Are you sick or something?" He tilted his head as he looked you up and down, scrutinizing you with a judgmental look on his face. "Considering the drastic difference in the things you're saying I wouldn't doubt it."

Ugh!

Sure, you were being a little bit weird with how much you were staring and all of the random thoughts you were saying that you spoke into existence but it was starting to seem like he was being rude to you on purpose. It wasn't as if you did or said anything to him that would've warranted his rudeness. 

He already basically trapped you into building a failing theatre company from the brink of destruction back up pay off of the loans taken out. Said loans that you weren't even around for might you add. 

Before you said anything else you turned away with a huff, mumbling words under your breath, this time making sure Sakyo couldn't anything you were saying. 

What else could you do?

You already wanted to get home and wipe your memory of Sakyo as quickly as humanly possible but it was going to take a few more minutes until you got back to the dorms. 

The fact that things being awkward was making you feel even more nervous which made the walk seem like it was going on for hours rather than minutes. 

You took a deep breath before turning back to him, giving him a thin smile as you began to keep up the pace with him. All you could do was suck it up for the moment. 

"I have a question Sakyo-san."

Looking down at you he let out a tired sigh. "What is it?"

You resisted the urge to turn your smile into a glare. 

Even when you were just saying you had a question for him he had to act like it was something difficult or annoying to deal with.

He really didn't have anything that he didn't have a problem with, did he?

You were more than sure that he didn't even know to smile in general, forget him ever smiling. 

"What is your deal with the theatre?" You tilted your head. 

Sure, there was more than enough loans taken out for the theatre but at the same time, it was clear to you that the theatre's decline wasn't a new thing. 

Considering the bad shape of everything, from the theatre to the dorms, everything in it and how it all seemed to be "normal" to Matsukawa it had to be going on for a while. 

After taking all of the recent plays into consideration after watching recordings given to you by Matsukawa it wasn't something that would be popular. The fact that more than one person even showed up to some of those shows was surprising. 

If he knew that the theatre wasn't going to get better why on earth did he continue to give out loans that weren't going to get paid back?

Well, paid back quickly at the very least.

Just what was the point in giving money to an already obviously failing theatre troupe?

It wasn't like he was going to get his money back, it seemed that he was wasting money rather than making a profit as you assumed at first. 

He let out a sigh as he turned his head up. "Is there a reason why you keep butting your nose into everyone's business?" He deadpanned. 

"I-"

You flinched at his words. 

He wasn't exactly lying with his words but it didn't mean that you weren't a bit offended by his words. He could try to mince his words, it was almost like he wanted to come off as being rude or something like that. 

A sigh left your lips as you looked down. "I was just curious, after all, it isn't like the theatre is exactly all that profitable. I'm sure it'd be more profitable to tear it down rather than continuing to loan money and indebt it even more."

The next few minutes were filled with silence making you feel like it would've been a better idea to just stay quiet. At least then it would've just been awkward than awkward and you left with an unanswered question. 

Ugh, the silence was unbearable. 

It was bad before but now it was unbearable to the point that you would probably scream at the top of your lungs just to get a reaction out of him. 

You whipped your head to the side as you looked up at the older man, this time a determined look on your face. "Sakyo-san-"

"Well, looks like we're here already."

Huh?

All you could do was stare at him with your mouth slightly agape until he pushed your chin up and handed you back your bags. 

You still had no idea what had just happened until you fully processed things a few seconds later. "Are you not even going to answer my question?" You turned around with a huff. 

He simply blinked as he turned away not even bothering to say anything to you. 

_'That's so rude! He isn't even going to say goodbye-'_

"Don't worry about it."

"Hm?" You looked up to see the older man waving you goodbye from over his shoulder, he still couldn't bother to look back at you as he said that. 

Another sigh. 

Despite his words, you couldn't help but feel even more nervous than you were before. Of course, that was if that was even possible. 

* * *

It brought a tear to your eye and was enough to make you cry, well, that was an obvious exaggeration. It was a nice thing to see them all getting along but not enough to cry. 

Everything that has happened was probably enough to make Matsukawa cry would be a much more accurate statement if that really means anything to anyone. 

You did tell yourself to not get hopeful due to how bad things tend to be whenever you get like that but you just couldn't help yourself. 

It seemed like Yuzo's critique actually did help them quite a bit.

They all seemed to have taken everything to heart, the change in everything was as clear as day. If someone told you that the Spring Troupe from only a couple days ago were the same people you wouldn't have been able to believe them. 

In fact, you probably would've called them a liar. 

Yup, that was how bad things were in your own eyes.

But now it seemed like things were going well, maybe you would be able to prove Sakyo wrong and possibly not have all of the hard work by you and everyone else go to waste. 

Of course, things didn't go down completely well. 

There was still Itaru to think about. 

It wasn't as if he wasn't a bad actor, not in the slightest, he was the furthest thing from a bad actor. 

Considering his lack of experience he was probably one of the better actors at first but he tended to be rather absentminded. It was as if he was just bored being there. 

He drifted off more times than you would care to say. 

Of course, there was the fact that he seemed to care more about video games than he did about the practice and you couldn't blame him. 

When he joined the theatre it was clear to you that it was mostly for the free bed and breakfast, the acting thing was just something that he had to do. 

That wouldn't be a problem if he put even just a bit of effort into it. 

It would be too much to ask someone that barely if any interest in something to bring their all but he could at least try and put some effort into acting. 

After all, the reason he even got to live in the dorms was due to the obligation of being a member of the troupe and acting to keep things the way they were. 

You let out a sigh as you banged your head against the wall. 

Things weren't going your way but that's alright!

All he needs is just a bit of encouragement to get started and then he'll definitely get interested in it. 

He didn't need to be someone that had years upon years of experience or even a crazy love for the art, all he had to do was get interested in it. 

Though, that was a lot easier said than done. 

Every single time you tried to talk to him he simply said yes and nodded to every single thing that you said. He couldn't make it anymore obvious that he wasn't listening to a thing you were saying. 

Before you could think about things even deeper you were interrupted by the sound of the door opening and closing by who other than the very person you were thinking about. 

"Itaru-san, do you mind if-"

"Sorry but I need to do something."

You watched with a blank expression on your face as the older man simply walked down the hall and down to his room leaving you alone with your immense disappointment. 

Well, it looks like all of your hope is now down the drain. 

Of course, you weren't expecting for it to be that easy but at the same time, you didn't think he'd shut you down completely like that, especially as quickly and easily as he did it. 

You sighed deeply to yourself as you threw your hands behind your head. 

"This is going to be much harder than I ever expected it to be."


End file.
